33.1-147 - Appeal to circuit court.
§ 33.1-147. Appeal to circuit court.
Any one or more of the petitioners, or the board of supervisors, or othergoverning body of any county or town council of the town in which the sectionof road or the crossing is wholly or partly located, or the Commissioner maywithin thirty days from the entry of the order by the CommonwealthTransportation Board, but not afterwards, appeal from the order to thecircuit court of the county in which the section of road or the crossing, orthe major portion thereof, sought to be abandoned, under § 33.1-145, islocated. Where the Commonwealth Transportation Board fails to enter an orderpursuant to § 33.1-145, such person or persons named in this section shallwithin thirty days from such nonentry, but not afterwards, have a right ofappeal to the appropriate circuit court. Such appeals shall be by petitionfiled in the clerk's office of such court, setting out the order appealedfrom or the cause appealed from where no order was entered and the grounds ofsuch appeal. Upon the filing of such petition, the clerk of the circuit courtshall docket the appeal, giving it a preferred status, and if the appeal beby any of the landowners who filed a petition with the CommonwealthTransportation Board for a public hearing shall have notice of such appealserved upon the attorney for the Commonwealth and the Commissioner, and ifthe appeal be by the board of supervisors or other governing body orCommissioner, notice thereof shall be served upon the landowners who filedpetition with the Commonwealth Transportation Board for a public hearing. Nosuch appeal shall be tried by the court within ten days after notice isgiven, as hereinabove provided, unless such notice be waived. The circuitcourt shall hear the matter de novo with further right of appeal as providedby the general law. Upon the hearing of the appeal, the court shall ascertainand by its order determine whether public necessity exists for thecontinuance of the section of road or the crossing as a public road orcrossing, or whether the welfare of the public will be served best byabandoning the section of the road or the said crossing as a public road orcrossing and shall enter its order accordingly. The clerk of the court shallcertify a copy of the order of the court to the Commonwealth TransportationBoard.
Upon any such appeal, if it shall appear to the court that by the abandonmentof such section of road or such crossing as a public road or crossing anyparty to such appeal would be deprived of access to a public road, the courtmay cause the railway company and the board of supervisors or other governingbody, or either, to be made parties to the proceedings, if not alreadyparties, and may enter such orders as seem to it just and proper for keepingopen such section of road or such crossing for the benefit of such party orparties as would by such abandonment be deprived of access to a public road.The provisions of this section shall not apply to any discontinuance of aportion of the State Highway System under § 33.1-144.
(Code 1950, § 33-76.4; 1950, p. 729; 1970, c. 322; 1978, c. 187.)