DEMOPOLIS – Arch Street has claimed what has long been considered private property.

The results of a city-commissioned survey of the area along the city’s waterfront were returned to the city Monday, said City Clerk Vickie Taylor.

The city council had commissioned the survey by Almon Associates in order to determine how much land existed beyond private landowners along the city-owned property originally designated as Arch Street.

“There were no changes from the original survey (recalled by surveyors last week) and I notified the chairman of the Arch Street Committee that it had arrived,” Taylor said.

Based on the survey map, viewed in city hall, a fountain and “log cabin” at Bluff Hall , owned by the Marengo County Historical Commission, are on city property, as are portions of a lot owned be Biboo Webb and portions of a pool and what’s designated on the map as a wood fence on the Henry W. Webb property at the end of Capitol Street.

According to a land deed recorded Jan. 17, 2004 in the Probate Office, the lot Biboo Webb’s house at 400 West Capitol St. is contained in a rectangular parcel, but the survey indicated a different property line angle, cutting a triangular portion out of her property and placing it on city land. The deed also stipulates that it was “prepared without the benefit of title examination.”

That same angle, which begins at the western edge of the Henry W. Webb property edges through the residence’s swimming pool.

Jay Shows, the chairman of the Arch Street Committee, said the issue of private on city-owned land wouldn’t effect the Riverwalk project.

“The originally planned path is not impacted by any existing structures because the path has always been planned to be as far away as possible for the existing residents’ homes,” he said.

In other words, even with the encroachments on the city property that is planned as the location of a more than one-mile long walking trail and docking development, there’s still room enough for the trail, he said.

In other Arch Street developments, the results of another city-commissioned study on the area was returned to the city on Friday.

An archaeological study

performed by

University of Alabama Office of Archaeological Research two sites of archaeological significance but said they did not pose a problem to the trail’s development with modifications to the trail construction in those areas.

“A number of factors resulted in the recovery of evidence of historic occupation within the proposed riverwalk trail alignment. A large number of cultural materials were located through subsurface testing with a small number from surface reconnaissance. However, as indicated above [in the report], two sites are considered potentially eligible for [National Registry of Historic Places]. Since the proposed project does not require deep subgrade preparation and the final construction design has yet to be completed, this office recommends placement of the proposed riverwalk on the surface in the location of [the two sites], rather than cutting the trail into or below the current surface grade … if the project design can be amended as suggested above [in the study], then OAR recommends a finding of no adverse effect,” the study concluded.

Almon, the studying engineers, forwarded the report to the state’s Historical Commission with the agreement to modify the trail design.