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Bill would let counties and townships use city street-abandonment process for dissolved towns
Summary
Senate Bill 2329 would authorize counties or townships to use the same petition-and-notice process cities use to vacate streets and alleys when a town is unincorporated or dissolved. The House committee received one proponent’s testimony and took a due-pass recommendation without opposition.
Larry Severson, executive director of the North Dakota Township Officers Association, told the committee that counties and townships currently lack a statutory process to abandon streets and alleys that persist on maps after towns unincorporate. He said those mapped streets can be a liability and cloud title for adjacent landowners.
Severson described Senate Bill 2329 as a statutory fix that would allow an organized township, or a county when the township is unorganized, to follow the same petition, notice and public meeting procedure available to cities for vacating streets and alleys. He said the provision mirrors the existing city process and only applies when property owners petition the governing body.
Representative questions clarified that the petition generally must be signed by owners of property adjoining the portion to be vacated, and that county commissioners appoint the county committee that would make the distribution decisions in dissolution cases. No one opposed the bill in committee.
The committee later voted to give SB 2329 a due pass recommendation (13–0) and placed it on the consent calendar.
