A public right of way in California is a corridor of private land, typically held by the government as an easement rather than owned outright, that is reserved for public travel and utility infrastructure. You keep title to the soil underneath. The public keeps the right to cross it, and the government and its authorized utilities keep the right to build and dig within it. That split shapes what you can plant, what you can build, who fixes the sidewalk, and what happens if the road is ever abandoned.
Easement, Not Ownership
The most important fact about a public right of way is that it is usually an easement. The government gets the right to use the corridor. You keep the deed. California law presumes that an owner whose land borders a road owns the soil to the centerline of that road, even though the public may travel across it.1California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code 831 – Boundaries That presumption can be rebutted—if a deed or condemnation action conveyed full title to the government, the centerline rule doesn’t apply—but absent an explicit transfer, the default is public passage, not public ownership.
Because you still own the dirt, you keep subsurface rights and certain surface uses. You pay property taxes on the land. You can sell it, subject to the easement. And if the right of way is ever formally vacated, the full bundle of rights snaps back to you as if the easement never existed.
How the Right of Way Got There
There are three main ways a public right of way ends up on a private parcel, and the origin often affects what the government can do within it.
The most common is express dedication. A landowner formally grants the corridor to a city, county, or the state through a recorded deed. In subdivisions, California authorizes local governments to require developers to dedicate land for streets, alleys, drainage, and utility easements as a condition of approval. Recording a tract map that shows streets is treated as an offer to dedicate. The offer doesn’t take effect until the local government formally accepts it, and many cities carry backlogs of streets offered decades ago but never accepted, which can create title complications for current owners.
Older common law also recognized implied dedication: if the public openly used a path across private land for five or more years without objection, courts could treat the owner’s silence as consent. Civil Code Section 1009 largely shut that door for new claims, requiring an express written offer and formal acceptance for public use to ripen into a permanent right. Property owners can reinforce their position by recording a notice under Civil Code Section 813 declaring that any public access is permissive and revocable. Implied dedications that vested before Section 1009 remain valid.
When no dedication exists and the owner won’t sell, the government can take a right of way by eminent domain. California’s eminent domain statutes let a public entity acquire whatever interest is necessary for the public use, whether that’s a simple easement or full title.2California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure – Rights Included in Grant of Eminent Domain Authority Fair market value must be paid under both the Fifth Amendment and Article I, Section 19 of the California Constitution. Most road condemnations take only an easement, because that’s all a road requires.
What You Can and Can’t Do Within the Strip
Owning land burdened by a public right of way is not the same as losing it. On the surface, you can generally landscape, plant, and maintain the area, as long as your activity doesn’t block pedestrian or vehicle traffic and doesn’t interfere with utility access. Parking in front of your own house is usually fine. Mowing the parkway strip is expected.
Permanent structures are where trouble starts. A brick mailbox pillar, a retaining wall, a fence, or a concrete pad placed within the easement is treated as an encroachment—an unauthorized obstruction the local government can order removed. If you built without a permit, you can be forced to tear it out at your own expense, with no compensation for the improvement and no credit for how long it stood.
If your project genuinely requires work inside the corridor, whether a driveway approach, a utility trench, or construction staging, you need an encroachment permit. Caltrans handles permits for state highways; cities and counties handle their own streets, each with its own application, fee schedule, and insurance requirements. Skipping the permit exposes you to removal costs on top of the original work.
Sidewalks: Your Concrete, Shared Liability
Sidewalks sit within the public right of way, which leads many owners to assume the city maintains them. In California, the Streets and Highways Code puts the duty of sidewalk maintenance on the abutting property owner. If your lot fronts a public street, you are legally required to keep the adjacent sidewalk in a condition that doesn’t endanger pedestrians or interfere with public use.3California Legislative Information. California Code Streets and Highways Code 5610 The cracked, root-buckled slab in front of your house is yours to fix.
A public entity can still be liable for a dangerous condition on its property, including a sidewalk, if it created the hazard or had notice of it and enough time to act.4California Legislative Information. California Code Government Code 835 In a trip-and-fall lawsuit, both the owner and the city can end up as defendants. Some cities run repair programs or cost-sharing arrangements when the defect was caused by a city-planted street tree, but the baseline obligation stays with the adjoining owner.
What the Government and Utilities Can Do Without Asking
The public entity managing a right of way, along with any utility it authorizes, can install, maintain, and repair infrastructure within the corridor at any time. Roads, sidewalks, bike lanes, traffic signals, curb ramps, water mains, sewer lines, storm drains, and conduits for power and telecommunications all fall within scope. The government’s right to access and use the easement is paramount and overrides your interests when the two conflict.
The scope is broad. Anything reasonably necessary to maintain the public’s ability to use the corridor is permitted, which is why a utility crew can dig up a freshly landscaped parkway strip without knocking on your door. They don’t need permission. Depending on the utility’s franchise agreement and local ordinances, they may be required to restore the surface after the work, but the initial right of entry belongs to the public side.
Vacating a Right of Way
When a road, alley, or easement is no longer needed, the local government can abandon it through a process called vacation. This is where many owners first engage with right-of-way law, usually because they want to absorb an unused alley into a backyard or a city is redrawing its street grid.
A vacation can start on the city council’s or board of supervisors’ own motion, or on a petition from an interested person, typically an adjacent owner. Once proceedings begin, the clerk sets a hearing at least 15 days out.5California Legislative Information. California Code Streets and Highways Code 8320 At least two weeks before the hearing, notices must be posted along the corridor, no more than 300 feet apart, with a minimum of three signs regardless of length.6California Legislative Information. California Code Streets and Highways Code 8323 The legal question at the hearing is whether the corridor is unnecessary for present or prospective public use. Credible evidence that it might still be needed for traffic, utilities, or pedestrian access can defeat the request.
If the governing body finds the right of way surplus, it adopts a resolution of vacation.7California Legislative Information. California Code Streets and Highways Code 8335 – Resolution of Vacation Recording the resolution with the county recorder clears the public easement from the title, and the land returns to unrestricted private use.
There is a catch worth knowing before you celebrate. Vacation of a street does not automatically eliminate utility infrastructure buried beneath it. Within 30 days of receiving notice of the proceeding, any public body with existing facilities in the corridor can record a notice preserving its easement to maintain, operate, and replace them. If a utility misses that window, its rights are extinguished, unless the local agency failed to give proper notice, in which case the utility has 180 days from recording of the resolution to preserve them.8California Legislative Information. California Code Streets and Highways Code 8348 Even after the road is legally gone, you may still have protected utility lines under your newly expanded parcel that you cannot build over or disturb.