33.1-151 - Abandonment of road, landing, or crossing; procedure.
§ 33.1-151. Abandonment of road, landing, or crossing; procedure.
The governing body of any county on its own motion or upon petition of anyinterested landowner may cause any section of the secondary system ofhighways or any crossing by the road of the lines of a railway company, orcrossing by the lines of a railway company of the road, deemed by it to be nolonger necessary for the uses of the secondary system of highways, to beabandoned altogether as a public road, a public landing, or as a publiccrossing, as the case may be, by complying substantially with the followingprocedure:
The governing body of the county shall give notice of intention to abandonany such road, landing, or crossing by (a) posting a notice of suchapplication at least three days before the first day of a regular term of thecircuit court, at the front door of the courthouse of the county in which thesection of the road, landing, or crossing sought to be abandoned as a publicroad, landing, or crossing is located, or (b) by posting notice in at leastthree places on and along the road, landing, or crossing sought to beabandoned for at least thirty days, and, in either case, by publication intwo or more issues of some newspaper having general circulation in thecounty, and the governing body shall also give notice of its intention toabandon such road, landing, or crossing to the Commonwealth TransportationBoard or the Commissioner thereof. In any case in which the road, landing, orcrossing proposed to be abandoned lies in two or more counties, the governingbodies concerned shall not abandon such road, landing, or crossing unless anduntil the governing bodies of the other county or counties in which suchroad, landing, or crossing is located agree thereto; the procedure in suchcases shall conform mutatis mutandis to the procedure prescribed for theabandonment of a road, landing, or crossing located entirely within a county.
When the governing body of the county gives notice of intention to abandonany such landing, the governing body shall also give such notice to theDepartment of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Upon petition of one or more landowners in the county whose property abuts onthe road, landing, or crossing proposed to be abandoned or, if only a sectionof a road, landing, or crossing is proposed to be abandoned, whose propertyabuts on such section of the road, landing, or crossing or of theCommonwealth Transportation Board or of the Department of Game and InlandFisheries, in the case of a public landing, filed with the governing body ofthe county within thirty days after notice is posted and published asaforesaid, but not thereafter, the governing body shall hold a public hearingon the proposed abandonment and shall give notice of the time and place ofthe hearing by at least two publications thereof in some newspaper havinggeneral circulation in the county and shall also give notice thereof to theCommonwealth Transportation Board or, if a public landing is sought to beabandoned, to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
If a petition be not filed as aforesaid for a public hearing, or if after apublic hearing is held, the governing body is satisfied that no publicnecessity exists for the continuance of the section of the secondary road asa public road, or the crossing as a public crossing, or the landing as apublic landing, or that the safety and welfare of the public would be servedbest by abandoning the section of road, landing, or the crossing, as a publicroad, landing, or crossing, it shall enter (i) within four months next afterthe thirty days during which notice was posted where no petition for a publichearing was filed, or (ii) within four months next after the public hearingan order on its minutes abandoning the section of road as a public road, orthe landing as a public landing, or the crossing as a public crossing as thecase may be, and thereupon the section of road shall cease to be a publicroad, or a public landing or a public crossing, as the case may be, or if thegoverning body be not so satisfied, it shall dismiss the application withinthe specified four months.
A finding by the governing body of a county that a section of the secondarysystem of highways is no longer necessary for the uses of the secondarysystem may be made if the following conditions exist:
A. The road is located within a residence district as the latter is definedin § 46.2-100;
B. The residence district is located within a county having a density ofpopulation exceeding 1,000 per square mile;
C. Continued operation of the section of road in question constitutes athreat to the public safety and welfare; and,
D. Alternate routes for use after abandonment of the road are readilyavailable.
In considering the abandonment of any section of road under the provisions ofthis section, due consideration shall be given to the historic value, if any,of such road.
Any order of abandonment issued in compliance with this section shall giverise in subsequent proceedings, if any, to a presumption of adequatejustification for the abandonment.
For the purposes of §§ 33.1-150 through 33.1-154, "landing" shall mean aplace on a river or other navigable body of water for loading or unloadinggoods, or for the reception and delivery of passengers; the terminus of aroad on a river or other navigable water, for the use of travelers and theloading and unloading of goods; a place for loading or unloading boats, butnot a harbor for them.
However, no public landing shall be abandoned unless the Department of Gameand Inland Fisheries shall, by resolution, concur in such abandonment.
(Code 1950, § 33-76.8; 1950, p. 731; 1970, c. 322; 1975, c. 255; 1978, c.187; 1980, c. 39; 1981, c. 323; 1990, c. 190.)