Right of Way Agent (RGE) at Canacre – New York

Canacre’s core services focus on leadership in Environment and Land services throughout the project lifecycle. At Canacre, we emphasize continuous development and growth. Our commitment to investing in industry knowledge and the expertise of our teams sets us apart. Our goals are to provide technical leadership for greater regulatory understanding and certainty and to build collaborative relationships with stakeholders, mitigating tomorrow’s environment, land and right-of-way risks today.

At Canacre, we act with honesty and integrity within a culture where trust, collaboration, and teamwork flourish. We commit to diversity, inclusivity and the celebration of successes. Our vision is to foster an environment that promotes inspired and empowered team members who make an impact.

The Right of Way Agent will be responsible for acquisition and enforcement of real property rights required for the operation, maintenance, and expansion of transmission, distribution, and communication systems, and other public and private infrastructure. The Right of Way Agent will provide local contact for interface with government, permitting, and customer interface related to franchise or property rights.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Investigate, negotiate, acquire, defend, and ensure legal recording and enforcement of property rights required for electric, gas, or communication infrastructure for Avangrid Networks (Distribution & Transmission)

• Utilize Avangrid software and physical files to document all communication with landowners including in-person meetings, email, phone in addition to capturing project updates and progress on each affected parcel
• Engage landowners to mitigate encroachments on rights of way
• Respond to internal and external customer inquiries in matters related to property rights
• Prepare or assist in preparing and securing specific state, highway, railroad, County, Town, City, Village permits for use of lands owned by governmental agencies, the public or other utilities including tree clearing permits
• Investigate, negotiate, and acquire leases, licenses, and permits for Networks infrastructure, staging areas for storm or construction lay down areas, railroads & canals crossing permits
• Responsible for document management involving legal documents filing, recording, parceling, indexing, and retrieval
• Coordinate and process payments to landowners for certain property rights through internal workflow and SAP
• Serve as legal witness as necessary for condemnation or other proceedings
• Investigate electric and gas franchise agreements and boundary lines
• Other tasks as assigned by RELM team members

JOB PREFERENCES AND REQUIREMENTS

Skills and Abilities:
Required:

• Clear, concise written and oral communication skills
• Strong negotiation and interpersonal skills
• Computer literacy (working knowledge of Microsoft Office software, Google Earth)
• Must be willing to travel regularly (up to 20%) and have reliable transportation

Preferred:

• Experience drafting and negotiating property rights documents including rights-of-way, easements, licenses, leases, purchase and sale agreements
• Ability to plot metes and bounds descriptions of property and read variety of maps/surveys
• Ability to evaluate, interpret, and analyze engineering and right-of-way drawings

• Ability to interpret and research (abstract) legal documents
• Property rights research methods, including courthouse searches for recorded documents and internet research of same
• Ability to determine valuation of crops, timber, etc. for damage settlement

Experience and Training:

• Knowledge of real estate principles gained through education and experience
• Must have NY Notary Public License or have the ability to obtain license within 3 months of hire date