House Transportation Committee weighs legal-trail maintenance language amid litigation risk

On May 9, 2025, the House Transportation Committee heard from legislative counsel about language in the conference version of the transportation bill that would explicitly grant towns the right to maintain so-called “legal trails,” and how that language could affect an ongoing court case over who holds maintenance rights for those trails.

The committee was briefed on three options under consideration in conference: leave the Senate language as written, remove the language entirely, or keep the language but delay its effective date (options discussed included 12, 18 or 24 months). The counsel said each choice carries legal trade-offs for the pending litigation and for municipalities that maintain trails.

“For the record, I’m Damien Leonard from the Office of Legislative Council,” said Damien Leonard, legislative counsel assigned to transportation issues. Leonard told the committee that if a landowner prevails in the current litigation, the Senate language “would be granting maintenance rights to the town. And so that would actually, in effect, be taking a property right from landowners,” which could give rise to inverse-condemnation claims seeking compensation.

Leonard…