State committee weighs clarifying towns' authority to maintain mapped legal trails amid pending court case

The Vermont Legislature's transportation committee on May 13 debated whether to clarify municipal authority to maintain "legal trails," public rights of way that many towns and trail groups treat as town-managed connectors. Damien Leonard of the Office of Legislative Council briefed committee members on legal risks while local trail advocates described how towns and volunteer groups rely on the routes for recreation, access and emergency connections.

The issue matters because legal trails—most of them former town highways mapped under state highway law—total roughly 500 miles across the state and are used for commuting, recreation and emergency access, witnesses said.

Leonard, who advised the committee on legal risks, said the core legal question is whether a 1986 recodification of Title 19 removed towns' implicit maintenance authority for trails previously treated as town highways. "If the town is correct, then they've had the right to maintain all along. They don't need to pay for it," Leonard said. He warned that if a court rules the legislature did relinquish…