Is a public road on the road maps automatically an easement?

[floridassd]

Florida

I live on a road that has access to the public highways from two ends, one on the North and one on the South end. The South end of the road turns into a dirt road for about a 1/4 mile. The property owner that is at the South end has erected a big steel gate across the road and refuses to give keys to the people that live on the road.

When a big storm comes the North end of my road floods 2 feet deep, locking me into the neighborhood.

The road is shown on all maps and mapping software. When people use a navigator to get to my home and are travelling from the South they always have to turn around and retrack about 6 miles to get to the highways that lead to North end.

My question is:
Is a public road and easement and if so how do I enforce it?

 

[floridassd]

Ooops, typo,

Is a public road an easement and if so how is it enforced?

 

[quincy]

Does the south end of the road run through property owned by the person living on the south end?

 

[Zigner]

How do you know that it's a public road? Exclude "all maps and mapping software" from your response please.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

The answer to your subject line question, "Is a public road on the road maps automatically an easement?", is most certainly, NO.

Anybody can draw a map. The number of entities that can create an easement is much more limited.

 

[floridassd]

Does the south end of the road run through property owned by the person living on the south end?

Not through, they own the property on the West side of the road in the middle between some state land and the county highway. I have heard that some of the other property owners that are on each side of the road are cooperating with the guy that made the gate.

 

[floridassd]

How do you know that it's a public road? Exclude "all maps and mapping software" from your response please.

I just looked at the property appraiser parcel map and clicked to show easements. The road is definitely an easement on the property appraiser map. It says "50' Ingress/Egress easement"

The road has a County road sign at the South end that identifies the road.

 

[LdiJ]

Florida

I live on a road that has access to the public highways from two ends, one on the North and one on the South end. The South end of the road turns into a dirt road for about a 1/4 mile. The property owner that is at the South end has erected a big steel gate across the road and refuses to give keys to the people that live on the road.

When a big storm comes the North end of my road floods 2 feet deep, locking me into the neighborhood.

The road is shown on all maps and mapping software. When people use a navigator to get to my home and are travelling from the South they always have to turn around and retrack about 6 miles to get to the highways that lead to North end.

My question is:
Is a public road and easement and if so how do I enforce it?

You are going to need to research whether the road is public or private, and if private, whether or not there is an easement. I suspect that you are going to need a real estate attorney on board. You might consider banding together with your neighbors to pay for one.

 

[NeilTheCop]

Does the mapping software, such as Google Earth give the road a name?
If so, contact your local County or City assessor and ask if they maintain it.
Or you can go online and look for something like this for your County
https://myescambia.com/our-services/publicworks/county-maintained-roads