It’s not often one person can change the minds of the entire Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
That’s not exactly what George Bochis got Wednesday. However, one supervisor did decide to move to postpone a federal easement patent hearing to April 6, and the board agreed.
Bochis used his public hearing time to urge the board to oppose the county abandoned the easement along lane off of North 15th Lane, between Yearling and Quartz Rock roads, on a county island, near the intersection of Parsons Road and 19th Avenue.
Bochis is hoping to have vehicle access to an interior lot via North 15th Lane. He told the board he can only do that if the county keeps an easement in place.
A county staff member who spoke Wednesday said the county wants to abandon the easement. The area is dirt roads and is not part of the county’s platted roadway system.
“My neighbor wants to remove eight feet from the easement, and make it a 25-foot-wide lane,” Bochis told the board. “If you want to make a U-turn, or bring in bigger vehicles, 25 feet is not very much.”
Bochis showed photo exhibits of areas annexed by the City of Phoenix with only the 25-foot width. He compared that with a maintained 66-foot-wide roadway easement with shoulders.
Bochis said a neighbor of his also filed an opposition to the abandonment.
Supervisor Clint Hickman, who made the motion to continue the hearing, said he his hoping the two weeks leading up to the April 6 meeting will allow Bochis and others to meet with county staff to meet and possibly come up with a compromise or a solution.
Jason W. Brooks is a News editor for the Daily Independent and the Chandler Independent.
He covers the Chandler area for both yourvalley.net and the monthly print edition while writing for and assisting in the production of the Daily Independent.
Brooks is a well-traveled journalist who has documented life in small American communities in nearly all U.S. time zones.
Born in Washington, D.C. and raised there and in suburban Los Angeles, he has covered community news in California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska and northern Arizona.
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