Fort Morgan street-side work may need a right-of-way permit

A Fort Morgan project can cross into right-of-way territory long before it starts to look like road work. The edge of the public street reaches farther toward the house than most people picture.

The city’s right-of-way permit ordinance covers the placement of structures and infrastructure, construction, excavation, encroachments, and work activities within or upon public right-of-way. Permits, procedures, fees, and charges all sit under that ordinance, and the whole point is to protect the integrity of the city road system.

So a permit can attach to a drive approach, a utility connection, a sidewalk-side project, construction staging, or anything that pushes into the public street edge. The work may serve a single private property, but the road, the drainage, and the shared public space around it still belong to everyone, and the city keeps a hand on how they are disturbed.

Pull up the city’s right-of-way permit page before a contractor starts cutting, digging, staging, or building near a street. Scheduling around a permit is a minor inconvenience; tearing out work that began in the wrong spot is a much costlier fix to live with later.