Blog · September 30, 2026
What Is a Variable-Width Easement?
A variable-width easement changes width along its length, usually by stations or by ties to a centerline and a property line. There is no single offset you can use for the whole strip. Each segment has its own dimension.
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Why the width changes
Road widenings, drainage swales, and slope easements often need more room on a curve, at a culvert, or where a cut gets taller. The plat shows a width of 15 feet here and 40 feet there, with angle points between. A table may list stations and offsets. The easement boundary is a line of its own, not a parallel copy of the road. If you apply the widest width everywhere, you give the project land it did not take. If you apply the narrowest, you build in the easement. Read every segment. The words variable width in the title are a warning that one number will be wrong. The numbers that matter are the ones drawn on each piece.
How the description is built
Sometimes the easement is the area between the right-of-way line and another line that is dimensioned. Sometimes it is a metes-and-bounds parcel. Sometimes it is hatched and the hatch is the only clear depiction, with a note that the hatch governs. If the hatch and a distance disagree, you have a conflict to note, not a choice to make in favor of your porch. An affidavit or a revised exhibit may exist. County GIS is poor at variable widths. A web map may draw a constant buffer because that is how the layer was built. The buffer is not the taking. Platbookmapper links to the county viewer and does not map variable easements. The recorded exhibit is the source.
Staking is not a tape-measure hobby
Variable offsets have to be built from the same centerline or base line the plat used, with the same stations. A laser measure from the edge of pavement fails because the pavement edge may not be the right-of-way, and the stationing starts at a point you have not recovered. A phone GPS cannot hold a 15-foot versus 40-foot difference reliably. Neither tool is a survey. If you are placing a fence near a variable slope easement, have a surveyor mark the easement line at the stations that matter. Do not cross the construction zone or pull stakes the road contractor set. Those stakes may be temporary grading controls, not your property corners.
What to do next
- List each width with the station or the segment it belongs to.
- Do not export one width into the next segment.
- Prefer the recorded exhibit over a GIS buffer.
- Have the easement line staked from the plat’s base line if you are building beside it.
The mix-up to avoid
Using the width printed in the title block as if it applied to every station. The title number is often the maximum or just a name. The segments are the easement.
Questions people ask
Is a variable-width easement the same as a blanket easement?
No. Variable width is still a defined shape, just not a constant offset. A blanket easement has no strip at all until it is located. You can plot a variable easement. You cannot plot a blanket easement as a strip without more information.
What if only the hatch is shown and the scan is fuzzy?
Get a better copy or the vector filing if one exists. Do not trace a fuzzy hatch with a ruler. Scale from a bad scan is not a dimension. The surveyor who signed the exhibit can also answer from the file.
Find the county map
Search the county on the Platbookmapper home page. The directory links to the official parcel viewer. It does not draw the lots, and the line on the screen is an assessment map, not a survey.
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.