Buying Maine land, driveways and mailbox information.
Not the most exciting topic to discuss at a holiday cocktail party. But what is the deal when you buy vacant raw land with no improvements? When there is no developed former house site with an existing driveway, maybe a utility power pole?
This blog post is all about buying Maine land and driveway permits, the do’s and don’ts for mailbox height and placement.
In a former life 41 years ago, your Maine REALTOR was a broadcaster. In my role as a newscaster when not doing shifts spinning records, it was often do a story on something I was not familiar with in the reporting.
At a Maine REALTOR state convention a few years ago, I remember proposed legislation about state of Maine driveway easements.
And our legal beagle, Linda Gifford told us this could impact Maine land small acreage lot sales.
So re-visiting the topic of driveway easement permits and the skinny on what about your new mailing address, the box to hold the letters, bills, catalogs and junk items.
First up, driveways on your Maine land.
Here’s what they need for a Maine land driveway permit. You don’t just dump a couple loads in the ditch separating a roadway and a potential house site to make a passage way. Like year round roadways are built to certain specs, tapping into them with a new driveway to use them comes with responsibility.
The Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) will issue a permit within 15 days of your written application for a new driveway. Drill down into the regulations on new driveways on Maine land before you purchase a property is my advice.
The permit for a new driveway from the MDOT when you are outside a compact area will need length, type of culvert information included in the paperwork.
Is there curbing, something to dig up and disturb? The plot thickens and the MDOT is not being difficult. If you are going to use the public highway, the folks that are in charge of it, that pave, plow and maintain it need some input on any new driveway openings. Safety is everything to avoid unnecessary accidents.
If there is a blind spot on a curve with trees restricting your view of what’s coming up and down the road? Then you may not be getting a permit for a driveway for your new home dream for the Maine land.
The Maine DOT will review the location of where you wish to put the new driveway and study visibility factors.
If that proposed driveway opening onto the highway is impaired for the speed of traffic on this stretch of hot top, it’s no go. Maybe just for this section of your road frontage or in some cases anyway because of unsafe conditions.
No one wants you to be t-boned coming out of your own driveway. It is your safety, not just for others using the highway to keep things rolling smoothly.
Urban compact areas, deal with these people if your proposed driveway to access your Maine land is in one of these shown to the right Maine municipalities.
Are you building a single family home or thinking of having a business too in your Maine house location? The use of the driveway, the zoning all impact the ability for a driveway or not. How many vehicles are coming and going, using this driveway? What type of business and how much traffic are you going to generate with that drive through window or Jiffy Lube fast oil change franchise?
Maine has sixteen counties but only five regions to figure out if you need a driveway permit or ultimately to determine if you get on if you do.
Once you get a Maine DOT driveway permit, you are good for two years. You have to have the driveway completed within a year once ground work construction starts.
Lots to know from sight distance standards to how close are other driveways to the one you are proposing to install. It’s only going to get more complicated like many things in life.
A farmer or woodsman that has fields or timber land needing access could get a permit by rule with minimal use and lower construction standards.
Get the state involved early on is the best advice and make the purchase of Maine land contingent upon a driveway permit, and while you are at it a soil test for septic system installation. No surprises. Those are the best Maine real estate purchases.
What about putting up mail boxes on your new piece of Maine land?
There are rules for a reason on the best practices for mail boxes too. My secretary’s husband worked for the Maine DOT for many years and his job was everything from plowing winter snow to studying the “highway assets”. To assess what culverts need replacement, which bridge or pavement project is next on the year for repair.
If you put your mailbox to the right of your driveway and have the container 45 inches off the ground.
This helps your chances of the mail box getting hit. But still works for the rural Maine mail carrier strattling the seat and stuffing mail in your box. The average height of the standard DOT snow plow “wing” is 39 inches high. 45 inches works for the mail carrier and clears that snow plow wing.
No Maine snowplow operator wants to take out your mailbox.
They don’t rack up points like in a pinball game for hitting them. But working together, if the homeowner follows the rules in where and how high they build and place their mailbox, the plowman can do his job easier.
We get asked a lot on unimproved Maine land what’s my mailing address going to be?
It depends on where you end up building along the road frontage and if you can get a driveway permit if
needed? Call the local post office that services the area of Maine where you plan to build a year round residence. To know what they determine your regulation 911 mailing address is going to be.
Seems funny in small rural Maine communities with under a 100 or 200 residents how high the four digit mailing address numbers go. But someone is planning ahead and expecting a mad dash to Maine.
Since COVID hit two Marches ago, there has been a big increase in the Maine real estate listing sales market activity.
Folks jammed too close in high traffic and crime city expensive settings, want out. They enjoy Maine on vacations and quickly decide why not make the move for full time enjoyment. Not just a week a year and that’s it until the calendar get torn off eleven more times.
Maine is simple living, less regulation, no layers of players. People are friendly and small town life is more rewarding. You pitch in and everyone has a role in what the quality of life is like in a small Maine town. Learn more about simple living in Maine.
The contact numbers for the regions of Maine DOT to get the driveway permit are displayed to save you time
Reach out, talk about what you hope to do and where with the folks that service the roadways that pass by your unimproved Maine land. Easy to deal with but not as much after the fact if you buy the Maine land then just go ahead constructing a driveway in the wrong location,
Had a nine lot Maine land subdivision that was surveyed and checked over before final approval by the Maine DOT.
They had to sign off on the plan and the proposed locations of the driveway points of roadway access. On one lot, the sight visibility test standards dictated no driveway in this section of the road frontage on lot number five.
Plenty of road frontage on the Maine land to put in a driveway but there was a “no fly zone” in this hidden section that was below the crest of the hill.
Where at certain times of the day with the sun at the right angle could increase the likelihood odds of a car accident going in or coming out.
If you are altering an existing driveway, especially when that driveway is on one very busy high speed section of US or State highway, make the call to the Maine DOT. Here is the A-Z on driveway permits and the FAQ on that very important topic.
Maine land, sometimes it is best to buy raw acreage and build what you want to get what you need.
It can be cheaper in the long run to build new, start fresh. Rather than add on, take away, rework to make do with what is already built on the Maine land for improvements. Reach out to a local Maine real estate professional to help guide the process. He or she knows the local who do you call and why.
These folks are neighbors, friends, heck sometime even relatives to the local Maine real estate agent. Everything goes smoother if you do things by the book and get the documentation along with the education from the local professionals that welcome you to Maine.
Have a four acres piece of Maine land ready to head to closing, a cash real estate sale.
But it’s hold up, let’s make sure the buyer can get a permit for a driveway in the next two week time period it takes for the green or red light. There is an existing farm field road used by the land
owner to access their woodlot for their yearly winter fuel measured by the cord. That use is different than a multi unit rental property creating several vehicles coming and going in and out onto the highway connected to the Maine land.
Speed limit 55 miles per hour on a US highway?
You can find that 525′ between driveways is needed. But if the speed limit was 50 miles per hour, suddenly the figure drops to 325′ spacing. It is hard when you glance across the road and see a driveway opening every 100′. That was before 2002 beefed up driveway permit legislation that became the law of “Vacationland”.
The best policy is not to assume there will be no issue with a driveway and run everything by the Maine DOT to know for sure.
To have in hand, the driveway permit all stamped, signed and legit. Rather than have the new Maine land owner jumping up and down in anger and threatening to sue someone, anyone.
Hope this blog post on buying Maine land, driveways and mailbox information helps save you time, worry, any delay frustration.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA
