At right is a close-up of
the 1877
historical map focusing on
the corner of Lafferty Ranch that touches Sonoma
Mountain Road.
Note the western corner of
the property. An entrance driveway is shown (near the
"M" in Marshall Lafferty) from Sonoma Mountain Road
which appears to be completely clear of the adjacent
properties.
That western corner of the
Lafferty property seems to correspond to the inside
(western) corner of the right-angle bend in Sonoma
Mountain Road. That would mean the entire
road right-of-way would be inside the Lafferty
property. This alignment is shown even more clearly in
the 1898 map, below, where the former Lafferty
property is shown belonging to the "Sonoma Co. Water
Co."
That these two factors --
road right-of-way within the Lafferty property and the
driveway into that property shown clear of adjacent
parcels -- is significant. We believe is shows
conclusively that people who drew up the original
property lines (which remain the same today), road
right-of-way, and official maps had no doubt about the
Lafferty property's clear access to Sonoma Mountain
Road.
This may explain why neighboring landowners have never
been able to produce documentation of any
easement granted across their properties for access to
Lafferty. It would have seemed obvious to the early
landowners that no such easement was required, since the
Lafferty property had clear access to the road.
Currently, the road pavement is around twenty feet away
from the Lafferty fencelines, which has led the
neighbors to the north and south of the Lafferty gate to
claim they control access from the road to Petaluma's
Lafferty Ranch property. How did this situation arise?
Rural fencelines are notoriously fluid and imprecise,
so it is likely they have wandered over time. But we
think the main culprit is the sharp, 90-degree, left
turn in Sonoma Mountain Road (which, ironically, was put
there to follow property lines and give explicit road
access to Lafferty Ranch). We believe road paving crews
-- and prior to its being paved, road users -- have
incrementally "cut", or rounded that corner to make it
safer and more direct. In so doing, they have gradually
moved the road away from the Lafferty Ranch property.
It is also worth noting that Petaluma commissioned a
boundary survey in 1998 which substantially agrees with
these historical maps.
See also these photographs of
the Lafferty gate area today.
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