Who owns it?

[dale3fan28]

K, so I notice some great strips of grass downtown in front of old businesses and churches between the sidewalk and the road..... Who owns it city or business...... Sidewalks and roads are public, shouldnt the grass strip be also?

 

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[OldNBroken]

Generally yes, parking strips are public property. Unfortunately many property owners don't know this and think it belongs to them.
Because of this I will not hunt, without permission, the one's that appear to be kept up by the property owners out of respect for them. It's just not worth the argument.
I love hunting parking strips and I just make a judgement call as far as whether I hunt it or not depending on the location and the look of it. Only had one confrontation in doing so and just left.

 

[dale3fan28]

Most of the ones i see are just outside of downtown by a block or two and are closed businesses or churches

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

Most of the ones i see are just outside of downtown by a block or two and are closed businesses or churches

old-n-broken is right: they are public eavesment. There's been many many threads on the legal nuances of how it's exactly worded, but the bottom line is, you can walk there, whistle dixie there, stand there, etc... You would simply be bound by whatever municipal codes exist in that city . Ie.: perhaps nudity is forbidden. Noise ordinances in effect. Destruction and vandalism of public property would come into play, etc.. But basically: if nothing in the city code said "no metal detecting", then presto, detecting is not dis-allowed. As long as you're not leaving holes and destruction, etc...

But as old-n-broken also says: this doesn't necessarily mean that a homeowner will know this. Or believe that you're not about to make a mark, etc... However, the ones he's talking about that he "asks permission" for, would be the ones in front of private homes. I don't think that the type scenario you're describing (commercial districts, or in front of abandoned places, or churches, or multi-unit type apartments and such), are in the same camp. I would not bother asking permission for those. Just go.

 

[cudamark]

If it's publicly owned property and not otherwise forbidden, I don't ask permission from anybody. If it's landscaped real nice, it's usually a waste of time hunting anyway as it's probably been resodded since silver was dropped. I like the old looking, un-cared-for looking areas....bare ground preferred. I hunt the business district on weekends or when they're closed and residential in the early morning or later in the evening when there are no lookie-loos around. No use having needless confrontations if you can easily avoid them. Even doing that is no guarantee you won't come across a "land baron" who thinks they own the sidewalk, grass, and street in front of their house. When you come across one of those knuckleheads, just smile and wave and move on down the road.

 

[dahut]

If it's publicly owned property and not otherwise forbidden, I don't ask permission from anybody. If it's landscaped real nice, it's usually a waste of time hunting anyway as it's probably been resodded since silver was dropped. I like the old looking, un-cared-for looking areas....bare ground preferred. I hunt the business district on weekends or when they're closed and residential in the early morning or later in the evening when there are no lookie-loos around. No use having needless confrontations if you can easily avoid them. Even doing that is no guarantee you won't come across a "land baron" who thinks they own the sidewalk, grass, and street in front of their house. When you come across one of those knuckleheads, just smile and wave and move on down the road.

This.

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