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Senate Transportation reviews S.4 to clarify municipal authority, liability and vehicle rules for legal trails
Summary
Legislative counsel told the Senate Transportation Committee that S.4 would explicitly let municipalities maintain and regulate “legal trails,” but raised open questions about easements, takings risk, liability and the scope of vehicle regulation; no committee vote was recorded.
The Senate Transportation Committee resumed testimony on S.4 on Oct. 12, hearing legal counsel explain the bill would amend state statutes to clarify that "trail" means a public right of way that is not a highway and to give municipalities express authority to maintain and regulate such trails.
Committee members were told the bill’s central changes include (1) redefining "trail" in Title 19, Chapter 3, (2) giving select boards authority to maintain trails while removing a statutory duty of care and (3) adding a municipal police-power grant in 24 V.S.A. §2291 to regulate uses of legal trails, including types of vehicles. "This is Senate Transportation, and we're resuming our testimony on S.4," the committee chair said as the hearing opened.
Why it matters: witnesses and senators flagged three issues with legal and policy consequences. First, counsel advised that trails are public rights of way that may exist as either municipal fee ownership or as easements across private land; changing their classification or the permitted municipal maintenance could affect private property interests. Second, counsel raised…
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