Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Committee reviews bill clarifying townsauthority to maintain legal trails
Summary
Legislative counsel told the House Transportation Committee that S.4/H.488 would explicitly allow towns to maintain legal trails; the change responds to ongoing Tunbridge litigation and could trigger compensation obligations if a court finds towns lost maintenance rights in the 1986 recodification.
On May 1, the House Transportation Committee heard from Legislative Counsel Damon Leonard about language in S.4 and H.488 that would explicitly state towns may maintain "legal trails," a change he said could affect roughly 500 miles of trail easements across Vermont and is tied to ongoing litigation in Tunbridge.
Leonard said the issue matters because of how trails are defined and the potential constitutional consequences if the Legislature grants a right that courts later find was relinquished. "Trail is a public right of way that is not a highway," Leonard told the committee, explaining that legal trails were separated from town highways when Title 19 was recodified in 1986 and that the maintenance language was not carried forward.
Under current statute, town…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
