Blog · September 30, 2026
What Is a Statutory Dedication?
A statutory dedication is a dedication that follows a statute’s required form, usually a plat with a prescribed certificate, so that recording and approval have the effect the statute gives them. It is different from a common-law dedication built from an offer and from public use.
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Form that the statute named
Many states spell out how an owner dedicates streets on a plat: a written dedication, acknowledged like a deed, on a map that is approved and recorded. When that form is followed, the statute says what the public receives and when title or the public easement passes. That package is a statutory dedication. A common-law dedication is the older, less formal path: an intention to dedicate plus acceptance, sometimes proved by use. The practical difference is proof. A statutory dedication is meant to be read off the plat. A common-law dedication may have to be proved from events. If you are holding a modern subdivision plat, start by assuming the statute is in play and read the certificates against that idea. If you are holding an 1850 town plot with no certificates, you may be in common-law territory, and the picture of a street is only the start.
What you still have to read
The statute does not excuse you from reading which strips were dedicated and which were reserved. A plat can dedicate Street A and label Street B private in the same certificate. It can dedicate an easement for the road and keep the fee in the adjoining lots, or dedicate the fee. Those choices are words. They are also local. One state’s statute passes the fee to the city. Another passes only a right of passage. Quoting a rule from the wrong state is a serious misread. The plat’s own clause is the first text. The statute is the context a local lawyer or surveyor applies. County GIS will not label statutory versus common law. Platbookmapper will not either. It links to the assessment map.
Using the label carefully
Call a dedication statutory only when the plat was made under a statute that provides for it and the certificates are the ones that statute expects. Do not use the phrase as a compliment meaning the plat looks official. An official-looking map can still have failed a required approval. Look for the approvals. Do not measure the dedicated width with a wheel and call the measurement the statute. The width is written. If the paved surface is narrower, the public right may still be the full written width, and the grass strip may be inside it. Fencing that grass because it is mowed is how encroachments start. A surveyor can stake the right-of-way line from the plat. A phone cannot.
What to do next
- Read the dedication certificate and the approval blocks together.
- Note fee versus easement in the words that were used.
- Do not import another state’s rule about what the public received.
- Treat an old map with no certificates as a different problem from a modern statutory plat.
The mix-up to avoid
Calling every platted street a statutory dedication. The phrase belongs to a procedure. A street drawn on a map without that procedure may be only an offer, a private way, or a picture.
Questions people ask
Does statutory dedication need a deed as well as a plat?
The plat and its dedication certificate are the instrument the statute usually relies on. A separate deed is sometimes used for a right of way outside a subdivision. Read what was actually recorded. Do not assume the plat replaced a deed the county also asked for.
Who owns the minerals under a statutorily dedicated street?
That depends on whether the fee passed and on any reservation. There is no universal answer. The dedication words and the state rule decide it, which is a title question, not a map-layer question.
Find the county map
Open Platbookmapper and pick the county that taxes the land. Use that viewer to get the parcel id, then match it to the recorded plat if you need the easements and lot numbers.
Not a survey. County GIS and tax parcel maps are assessment and planning layers. They are not a substitute for a recorded plat, deed, or licensed survey.