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I’m no civil engineer, but I’m pretty sure those ditches that run along people’s front yards are there for a reason. They basically take the place of a storm drain. If you fill it in, the water will collect there and could run off into the street, other properties, etc. Private property is one thing, but the front several feet of your property is a pseudo public right of way.

Good point. Although lots of other homes don’t have ditches. I wonder if at some time in years long gone if the spring didn’t produce more water. Our yard, “upstream” of the spring, never had a ditch.

It actually is an "easement" which means it is subject to the whims of local gubmint. I live on a state highway, and when I wanted to make my driveway concrete, an Ohio DOT nerd showed up and tried to tell us we had to leave the last twenty feet between driveway and street as dirt. He had no coherent explanation. I suspect he may have been drinking by 11 AM.

He seemed to think water would run down my driveway then uphill, into the middle of the road and freeze, thus creating an ice spot in the highway. My driveway had been blacktop, and in 30-odd winters of course no such thing had ever happened. Water does not run uphill, even in NE Ohio.

My contractor was quite agitated but his business liocense was at stake so he had no choice but to yield. I was at work at the time but fortunately, Mrs Buzzard, who chews nails for breakfast, made the DOT squish relent and let the concrete be laid to within about ten feet of the road. I'll finish the rest myself, a bag or two at a time.