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Committee votes not to advance bill that would change private-road maintenance rules
Summary
After testimony from sponsor Rep. Deborah Elward and opponents including timberland owners, the House Public Works and Highways Committee voted to recommend House Bill 10-57 Inexpedient to Legislate (ITL). The bill would have created default rules for privately owned roads held in common and expressly treated snow-and-ice removal as maintenance.
Representative Deborah Elward, sponsor of House Bill 10-57, told the committee she drafted the amendment after more than a decade of conversations with private-road residents and land-use attorneys about disputes over maintenance, cost sharing and emergency access. "This act provides clear default rules, allowing owners to resolve these disputes lawfully in the absence of a governing entity," Elward said, urging that the bill replace an unclear patchwork of case law with statutory standards.
Elward said the amendment corrects language to require unanimous consent for certain decisions rather than majority rule and…
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