Blog · September 30, 2026
What Title to a Vacated Alley Means
When an alley is vacated, the public right ends by a recorded vacation, and title to the strip is settled by the vacation statute and the original dedication. Often each abutting owner takes to the center. That is a common outcome, not a guess you should stake before you read the vacation.
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Vacation is a document
An alley shown on an old plat may have been vacated by ordinance years later. The ordinance or the vacation plat identifies the alley or the part of it, and it is recorded. After that, the public right of passage is gone for the part described. What happens to the fee depends on whether the city had the fee or only an easement, and on the statute that says where a vacated alley goes. A very common statutory result is that the adjoining owners on each side receive the half on their side, to the centerline. It is common enough that people skip the ordinance. Do not skip it. The vacation may give the whole width to one side, reserve a utility easement, or stop short of your block. The centerline assumption is a hypothesis until the paper agrees.
The picture after vacation
Platted lot lines may still be drawn as if the alley exists, because the original plat was not redrawn. Your deed may still say Lot 6 and never mention the alley. A later deed may say Lot 6 and the south half of the vacated alley adjoining. That second form is clearer. If your deed is silent, the statute may still have operated when the vacation was recorded, or it may not have, if the fee layout was unusual. This is exactly the sort of question a title examiner answers from the plat, the dedication, and the vacation. County GIS sometimes merges the vacated half into the parcel and sometimes leaves the alley as a white gap. Both are mapping choices. Platbookmapper links to that map and does not decide vacations. A measuring wheel down the old alley measures whatever is paved. It does not measure title.
Utility leftovers and fences
Vacations often reserve easements for sewers or wires already in the alley. The public cannot drive there, and you still cannot build a footing on the pipe. Read the reservation before you pour a slab. Also do not fence the full width because the neighbor has not used their half. If the statute split the alley at the center, the far half is not yours to occupy. Do not dig for the old alley monuments. A surveyor can mark the centerline from the plat if the vacation actually split it there. Until you have the vacation and the deed, leave the fence where it is.
What to do next
- Find the vacation ordinance or vacation plat, not just the original alley.
- Read who receives the strip and whether a utility easement remains.
- Do not assume a centerline split without the statute and the document.
- Update your sketch only after the deed or the statute supports the added strip.
The mix-up to avoid
Painting the whole alley onto your lot because the pavement looks abandoned. Vacation is recorded, and the far half often belongs to the opposite owner.
Questions people ask
Does non-use of an alley vacate it?
Non-use does not, by itself, record a vacation. Some alleys stay dedicated and unused for decades. You need the vacation instrument or a legal conclusion about abandonment, which is not a conclusion you should write yourself from weeds.
If I own to the center, can I build a garage there?
Only if zoning, any reserved easement, and the building rules allow it. Title to the strip removes the public street right. It does not issue a building permit or cancel a sewer easement the vacation kept.
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.