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Q. If you travel west on Fox Road from the intersection of Fox and Louisburg Roads, past Fox Road Elementary School, you will see an odd sight on the right just before Fox passes over I-540. There's a short squirrelly bit of asphalt, perhaps 150 feet long, that ends near a large old tree.

Uh, why is this strange ribbon of pavement there? Who owns it? Who paid for it? It's a nice tree and all, but I've known many nice old trees that didn't have their own driveway.

I look forward to hearing your discoveries and thank you in advance.

-- Tim Humphrey, Raleigh

A.It is an odd sight -- "squirrelly bit of asphalt" is a good way to describe it.

The road and surrounding land is owned by a private company in Atlanta, but you paid for it -- assuming you are a tax-paying citizen. The road was built by the N.C. Department of Transportation.

No, their land surveyors weren't having an off day -- they had to build a road leading into an open field.

It's not really a road; in DOT parlance, it's called a "stub," according to Reese Briley, assistant resident engineer for the agency. The stub was built in connection with the construction of Interstate-540, which runs right beside the property.

When the DOT acquired land for the highway, it cut off access to the vacant property to the north of Fox Road.

The DOT has the legal power to take land it needs for roads -- which it did in this case. But when it acquires land, the DOT cannot cut off access to people's property, Briley explained.

So the agency built the road for the property owner, Tom Hendrickson.

"We gave him access to do whatever he wants to do with it in the future," Briley explained.

Hendrickson could not be reached for comment, but his intentions are not important anyway; what he did with the land is sell it to an Atlanta developer.

Miles Development Partners bought the land in July 2007, according to Jason Perry, vice president of development for that company.

They plan to build 376 apartments. The company hopes to start construction in late July or early August, Perry said.

And that little stub will grow up to be a full-fledged road.

"There's going to be a new road built alongside 540 extending from Fox," Perry said.

As for the tree, let's hope that it survives. No, it's not so nice it deserves its own driveway, but it's too nice to cut down.