Title 19, Highways

§ 702. Width of highways and trails The right-of-way for each highway and trail shall be three rods wide unless otherwise properly recorded. Any highway that had been designated as a trail prior to July 1, 1967 and later becomes a trail shall retain the same width of right-of-way…

§ 703. Widening of highways If the width of a highway as laid out is less than the law or the public convenience requires, the selectboard may widen the highway accordingly. Persons whose lands are taken or are damaged shall be entitled to compensation. (Added 1985, No. 269 (Adj.…

§ 704. Survey and boundaries When the selectboard accepts, lays out, or alters a highway, as provided in this chapter, it shall cause a survey to be made in accordance with the provisions of section 33 of this title and shall mark each termination of the survey by a permanent mon…

§ 705. Papers to be recorded A copy of any order of a court establishing, altering, or discontinuing a highway, together with a survey of so much of the road as is in any one town, certified by the clerk of the court, shall be recorded in the office of the town clerk. (Added 1985…

§ 706. Duties of commissioners appointed by the Supreme or Superior Court Any commissioners appointed by the Supreme or Superior Court to build or repair a bridge or lay out, alter, or discontinue a highway may order the town or towns, in or through which they lay out or alter a …

§ 707. Powers of Supreme and Superior Courts Upon petition for that purpose as in case of laying out, altering, or discontinuing a highway, and by similar proceedings, the Supreme or Superior Court may order hills to be graded and surfaces to be graveled on existing highways unde…

§ 708. Petition (a) Persons who are either voters or landowners, and whose number is at least five percent of the voters, in a town, desiring to have a highway laid out, altered, reclassified, or discontinued, may apply by petition in writing to the selectboard for that purpose. …

§ 709. Notice and hearing The selectboard shall promptly appoint a time and date both for examining the premises and hearing the persons interested, and give 30 days’ notice to the petitioners, and to persons owning or interested in lands through which the highway may pass or abu…

§ 710. Survey or order of discontinuance After examining the premises and hearing any interested parties, and if the selectboard judges that the public good, necessity, and convenience of the inhabitants of the municipality require the highway to be laid out, altered, or reclassi…

§ 711. Selectboard’s return; recording (a) Within 60 days after the examination and hearing, the selectboard shall return the original petition with a report of its findings and of the manner of notifying the parties together with the survey or discontinuance, to the town clerk’s…

§ 712. Damages paid or tendered When the selectboard determines that a person through whose land the highway passes or abuts is entitled to damages, the town shall pay or tender to him or her damages as the selectboard determines reasonable before the highway is opened. (Added 19…

§ 713. Time for vacating land When the selectboard lays out or alters a highway, it shall fix in its order the time within which the owner of the lands taken shall remove the owner’s buildings, fences, timber, wood, or trees. Without the consent of the owner, the time shall not b…

§ 714. Possession after time expires When a highway is laid out or altered, the selectboard may take possession of the land within the surveyed limits, at any time after the expiration of the time fixed by the selectboard unless appealed to the Superior Court for landowners to re…

§ 717. Evidence of highway completion or discontinuance (a) The lack of a certificate of completion of a highway shall not alone constitute conclusive evidence that a highway is not public. (b) A town or county highway that has not been kept passable for use by the general public…

§ 725. Arbitration If the damages offered by the selectboard are unacceptable to the property owner, or interested person, the selectboard, with the consent of the other party, may agree to refer the question of damages to one or more disinterested persons mutually selected, whos…

§ 726. Petition to Superior Court A person not satisfied with the damages offered by the selectboard, or any decision made by the selectboard, may apply to the Civil Division of the Superior Court for the appointment of commissioners to appraise the damages. Any other persons cla…

§ 727. Application The application shall be made within 60 days after the highway is opened for travel. A person who did not receive notice of the selectboard’s hearing may apply within one year of the day the highway is opened. (Added 1985, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)

§ 728. Service On receipt of the petition, the court shall issue a citation stating the time and place of hearing that, with the petition, shall be served on one or more selectboard members at least six days before the time. (Added 1985, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)

§ 729. Commissioners; selection When the parties do not agree with any other method of appointing commissioners, the court may make a list of 18 disinterested individuals. Each party may object to six on the list, and out of the number not objected to, the court shall select thre…

§ 730. Commission The court shall direct the commission to impartially appraise the damages sustained by the petitioner or the relief sought as set forth in the petition, and report their findings to the court by a date stated in the instructions. (Added 1985, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.…

§ 731. Impartial appraisals The commissioners shall be sworn to make impartial appraisals. They shall give at least six days’ notice of the time of making the appraisal to one or more of the selectboard members and, at the time appointed, examine the premises, make the appraisal,…

§ 732. Report The court may accept or reject the report in whole or in part or recommit it to the same or new commissioners with such instructions as justice requires. (Added 1985, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)

§ 733. Costs When the appraisal by the commissioners is more than was offered by the selectboard, the town shall pay the costs; when less, costs shall be borne by the petitioner. (Added 1985, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)

§ 740. Petition (a) When a person owning or interested in lands through which a highway is laid out, altered, or resurveyed by selectboard members objects to the necessity of taking the land, or is dissatisfied with the laying out, altering, or resurveying of the highway, or with…

§ 741. Appointment of commissioners The court shall appoint three disinterested landowners as commissioners to inquire into the convenience and necessity of the proposed highway and the manner in which it has been laid out, altered, or resurveyed and, except where a trial by jury…

§ 742. Commissioners’ report; judgment on report The commissioners shall give notice to one or more of the selectboard members and to the appellants of the time and place where they will examine the area and hear testimony. After completing their inquiries, they shall make a repo…

§ 743. Opening of highway stayed; damages When the appeal to the Superior Court is based on objections to the necessity of taking the land, or on dissatisfaction with the laying out, alteration, or resurvey by the selectboard members, the opening of the highway shall be stayed un…

§ 750. Petition When the selectboard does not lay out, alter, or discontinue a highway, or when a highway is laid out by the selectboard and is not built and opened for use within three years, or if discontinued by the selectboard before it is built and opened, persons who are ei…

§ 751. Service of citation; commissioners The petition with a citation, shall be served on one or more selectboard members within 21 days from the date received by the court. Unless cause is shown to the contrary, the court shall appoint as commissioners three disinterested lando…

§ 752. Court may refuse to appoint commissioners When, within five years from the date of the petition, two prior petitions have been brought for substantially the same purpose, and the appointed commissioners’ report was adverse to the petition, the court may refuse to appoint c…

§ 753. Hearing by commissioners The commissioners shall appoint a time and place for examination and hearing, give notice to one or more selectboard members and to persons owning or interested in the land through which the highway may be laid, examine the premises, and inquire in…

§ 754. Survey; determining damages When the commissioners decide to lay out or alter a highway, they shall cause the highway to be surveyed and determine what damages will be sustained by the persons interested in the lands after notifying the persons of the time and place of the…

§ 755. Petitioners especially benefited When the commissioners determine that the petitioners or some of them, will be especially benefited, they may make their decision to lay out the highway conditional upon the payment by the petitioners benefited of money, in the amount as th…

§ 756. Filing of report When the commissioners have completed their inquiries, they shall report their findings and decision with the survey and appraisal of damages, if any. The report shall be returned to and filed in the county clerk’s office within 30 days after the completio…

§ 757. Filing of survey and appraisal The commissioners shall also file a copy of the survey and the appraisal of damages in the town clerk’s office at the time of filing their report in the Superior Court. (Added 1985, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)

§ 758. Opposing report The town or any interested person may appear before the court to oppose the acceptance of the report by showing any relevant facts. (Added 1985, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)

§ 759. Orders on report; costs The court may reject or accept the report in whole or in part, and by its order or decree establish, alter, or discontinue the highway, in whole or in part, and render judgment for or against the town in favor of the persons interested in the lands …

§ 760. Order to require payment to town When the report makes the laying out of the highway conditional upon the payment of part of the expense by the petitioners especially benefited, the order laying out the highway shall require payment to the town within a stated time. (Added…

§ 765. Time limits When the Supreme or Superior Court orders a highway to be laid out or altered, it shall fix the time within which owners of lands taken shall remove their buildings, fences, timber, wood, and trees, and open the land for working, and the time when it shall be o…

§ 766. Extension of time The selectboard of a town in which a highway or bridge is ordered to be built may apply by petition to the court making the order to extend the time for completing the highway or bridge. Notice shall be given to one or more of the original petitioners for…

§ 771. Procedure (a) The legislative body of a municipality may discontinue a town highway after following the procedures of sections 708-711 of this title. The authority of the legislative body under this subsection shall extend to any town highway, regardless of whether the hig…

§ 772. Service of petition; costs When a petition is made to the Superior or Supreme Court to discontinue a highway laid out by commissioners appointed by either of the courts, which has not been built agreeably to the orders of the court, the petition shall be served on one or m…

§ 775. Title to discontinued highway The selectboard shall notify the Commissioner of Forests, Parks and Recreation when it has filed a petition to discontinue a highway under this subchapter. The selectboard may designate the proposed discontinued highway as a trail, in which ca…

§ 776. Damages for highways discontinued before completion When a public highway is laid out and damages are assessed to the owners of the land or rights acquired and the highway is legally discontinued before being worked or opened, the assessment of damages shall become void. D…

§ 781. Assessment When a town does not perform the order of the Supreme or Superior Court as to building a highway or building a bridge, the court may, on application, assess the town a sum sufficient to build and complete the highway or bridge. The assessment shall be spent in b…

§ 782. Application; service of citation The application may be made by one or more of the original petitioners for the highway or bridge within three years from the expiration of the time prescribed by the court order for the performance, and, with a citation, shall be served on …