Real Estate & Development Services

Road Right of Way Purchase Process

Road Right-of-Way Purchase Process

Are you interested in purchasing a portion of road right-of-way? This also includes alleys, laneways, and grassy boulevards!

What is road right-of-way?

The City of Calgary uses the term road right-of-way to describe all aspects of the physical space of roads, lanes and boulevards that are adjacent to your property.

Purchasing a road right-of-way parcel

If you’re interested in purchasing a road from the City, you will need to complete the online 3-1-1 Property Leasing and Sales Inquiry. Once submitted, the inquiry will be circulated to various city departments to determine if the road is designated as surplus parcel. 

If that portion of road right-of-way is determined to be surplus you will be notified, a file will be created and added to our queue to be reviewed and assigned to one of our Sales Agents. While you are waiting to be assigned a Sales Agent, we recommend that you start the process of obtaining a Road Closure / Land Use Amendment, as this process may take between 6-12 months, and is a requirement to purchase a road right-of-way.

When a portion of road or laneway is determined to have no current or future municipal use, it is deemed surplus to the City and available for potential purchase.

Purchasing process

Purchasing process

For an in-depth overview of the required steps to purchase a road right-of-way from The City, please review the following steps:  

Standard terms and conditions for purchasing *subject to change

Standard terms and conditions for purchasing *subject to change

  1. Purchaser to be responsible, at their sole cost and expense, for the Road Closure/Land Use and registration of title for the road/laneway.
  2. Purchaser to, at their sole cost and expense, consolidate the road/laneway to the adjacent property.
  3. Purchaser must provide confirmation that they are the owners of the adjacent property.
  4. Purchaser is buying the road/laneway as-is.
  5. If utilities exist within the road/laneway, a general utility right-of-way caveat will be registered on the title to the road/laneway, and shall be a permitted encumbrance.
    1. The Purchaser to provide, at their sole cost and expense, a utility plan of survey to be registered on the road/laneway.
  6. Purchaser responsible for hiring their own Lawyer and Surveyor.
    1. The Surveyor will survey the land to determine the size of the land and then submit the survey plan to the provincial Land Titles Office to get registered plan approval.
    2. The Surveyor is needed to submit an application to the City’s Planning Department for a Road Closure and Land Use Application. The application is required to create a Road Closure Bylaw and a Land Use Bylaw based on the registered plan. The application is ultimately approved by City Council.
    3. The Surveyor will also be required to create a Consolidation plan that is required to consolidate the right-of-way (laneway) plan with your property.
    4. Surveyor costs are usually $3,000.00 to $5,000.00 and the cost of Road Closure and Land Use Application is approximately $8,000.00 to $10,000.00. Please verify costs with your surveyor.

Please note that the above noted terms are subject to change once a Sales Agent is assigned through the negotiation process. What has been provided to you above is the standard general terms of a transaction similar in nature. 

 

If you wish to proceed, please be aware that you are doing so at your own risk and expense, and you understand that an agreement may not be met between you and The City regarding the purchase of the Property.

Start the 3-1-1 Inquiry
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