FAQ

While it may not be apparent, much of the open space you see in Walnut is actually on privately owned lots. Throughout the City, there are hundreds of privately owned lots that contain creeks, public trails, and/or protected open space.  At least 30 of those lots contain sections of either Lemon Creek or Snow Creek.

Notably, a review of title information indicates that very few of these lots are covered by deed restrictions and/or easements to protect the open space, creeks, and public trails contained within them. Brookside, on the other hand, will have a combination of stringent recorded restrictions to protect the creek, and open space within private lots.  These provisions will prohibit the homeowners from building, fencing, or even planting vegetation in the restricted portions of their lots, and the restrictions will give the City the power to enforce compliance.  (Similar legal restrictions will also protect the sections of the Brookside Trail that are located in easements on private lots.)

To further illustrate this, here is a Brookside site plan showing the building pads (in tan and marked, “Areas in which structures can be built”), and the remaining portions of the private lots, where all uses by the owners are prohibited, either by required set-backs (yellow) or by deed restrictions to protect open space (dark green):