Additionally, the District granted a permanent easement to Maryland and Virginia for the portion of the bridge located within its boundaries.

In return, a permanent easement on the land restricts all nonagricultural uses.

For its part, Cigna maintains it has permanent easements on the property, giving it the right to establish parking there.

The MOA gave the federal government a permanent and irrevocable easement over Washington Street.

"They gave us a permanent easement," Mr. Blake said.

The way to go, Mr. Kuperberg said, is a permanent easement, if you can get it.

And she got her permanent easement.

Mr. Gibbs and his family put their 800-acre dairy farm into permanent easement in 1989, one of the first farms in the area to do so.

Primarily what they need is a concession from some government, a permanent easement on which to build the catapult.

"A permanent easement on our property would restrict us from ever using that property for anything we might need," he said.