'Ancient Roads' Search
Three Area Towns Get
Money for Research

Bethel, Pittsfield, and Sharon will receive state grants to resolve the sometimes thorny issue of "ancient roads."

They are among the 22 Vermont towns that will receive state grants to research and map these former roads in an effort to resolve potential legal disputes over the sometimes forgotten roadways.

The grants are the result of a law passed by the legislature last session to address the issue, which has the potential to complicate real estate transactions because of the impact of uncertain ownership on mortgages and titles. A total of $100,000 was appropriated.

The Department of Housing and Community Affairs received applications for nearly three times as many grants as they were able to fund, so recipients were chosen randomly by geographic area.

In the announcement this week, Bethel received $4840, Sharon $5000 and Pittsfield $2452.

Act 178 was a compromise between those who felt ancient roads should remain public assets, and those who believed the towns should no longer retain public rights to unused lands that may not have been maintained or used as roads for years and that have been presumed by landowners to be privately held.

The law allows towns to identify and add to their town highway map all town highways and trails that it decides to retain as a public right-of-way. It establishes a public discontinuance process for roads that are no longer desired as public rights-of-way.

Towns have until July 1, 2009 to add unmapped town highways that lack physical evidence of their use onto their town highway map to keep those roads active.

After that, unmapped highways become "unidentified corridors" that the town is not required to maintain and that will be discontinued on July 1, 2015 unless the town acts to reclassify them, a process that can include landowner compensation.

Act 178 also lets towns that are satisfied with their existing highway map to effectively discontinue all roads that do not appear on those maps, following a process that includes public notice and public hearing.

Voters or landowners can petition local officials to save highways from discontinuance or request that they designated as trails before July 1, 2009.