Joint Referral Committee

A street or alley may only be abandoned to a property owner whose property is abutting the street or alley to be abandoned. 

Upon review of a request for the abandonment and sale of a street or alley which contains pavement or public utilities, a Contact Letter will be forwarded to the applicant listing requirements that must be completed to finalize the transaction.

Upon approval by the Joint Referral Committee, the Traffic Operations Division will post signs notifying the public of the abandonment of the street or alley. The public has an opportunity to provide comments concerning the abandonment and sale during the 30 day period.

A sample application is available for reference.

This application should be used to request the abandonment/removal of City-owned easements from private property. This application must be used for utility, sanitary sewer, water, storm sewer and utility easements.  If there are public utilities currently located within the easement(s), the applicant may be required to relocate said utilities to a public street right-of-way and/or relocate the utilities to an easement conveyed back to the City of Houston. Since private utility companies have the right to locate facilities within public utility easements, if the easement to be abandoned and sold is a utility easement, private utility companies must be contacted.  Any property owners abutting the easement(s) to be abandoned and sold must consent to this transaction by signing the signature page of the JRC application.  

The application for a Non-acceptance or Disclaimer can only be used for unimproved street rights-of-way or alleys. An unimproved street right-of-way or alley must not be paved or improved for vehicular traffic and cannot have any public utilities constructed within the street or alley. If utilities are within the street right-of-way or alley, the appropriate process is submittal of an application for the abandonment and sale of street or alley.

This application must be used to request the City to sell fee-owned property in the following instances:

• The fee-owned property is irregularly shaped, or
• The fee-owned property is too small to be independently developed under current development standards, or
• The fee-owned property lacks access to public roads/right-of-way (is landlocked)

This application cannot be used for any type of request that includes the abandonment and sale of a street, alley, sale of fee-owned property subject to bid sale standard, or any other request. Please refer to the Application for Abandonment and Sale of Street or Alley for these types of combination transactions.

Request for the City to Approve an Encroachment of an Existing Structure into a Street or Alley.

This application is for use only under the following conditions:

(a) The encroachment is pre-existing

(b) The encroaching structure must be permanent, such as a building, garage, etc.

 If the encroachment is into a subsurface utility easement* or aerial easement**:

This application cannot be used for any new or proposed encroachments. Owner should be prepared to construct private improvements within private property and not within the public right-of-way.

This application cannot be used for any type of request that includes the abandonment and sale of a street, alley, or easement, the sale of fee-owned property, or any other request. Please include 

Encroachment Requests with the Application for Abandonment and Sale of Street or Alley.

This application is for use whenever it is determined that a recorded instrument contains verbiage which allows a public easement (storm sewer, water, water meter, or sanitary sewer) to revert to the previous owner or terminate, if the easement is no longer being used for the original purpose for which it was conveyed to the City.

• This application can be used to request the reverter/affidavit of multiple easements, so long as the easements are located within the same tract. For easements located in another tract, additional applications are required.
• This application must be completed and returned to the Utility Analysis Section (UAS) for it to review and determine if an active public utility is located within the easement. To contact UAS, please Click Here.
• If the recorded instrument does not contain reverter/termination verbiage, or an active public utility line is located within the easement, then the Application for Abandonment and Sale of an Easement must be completed.
• All information must be complete on the application, including printed name, title, date, and signature. All related documents must be attached to the application.