2011 Vermont Code
Title 19 Highways
Chapter 5 CONDEMNATION
§ 506 Service and publication of necessity petition and notice of hearing; answer

§ 506. Service and publication of necessity petition and notice of hearing; answer

(a) The agency shall prepare a notice of the necessity hearing. The notice shall include the names of the municipalities in which the lands to be taken or affected are located; the names of all interested persons within the meaning of subdivision 501(2) of this chapter; and a brief statement identifying the proposed project and its location, and the date, time and place of the necessity hearing. The agency shall make service of copies of the petition, the notice of hearing and the survey (for the purposes of this section, "survey" means a plan, profile, or cross-section of the proposed project) as follows:

(1) Upon interested persons in accordance with the Vermont Rules of Civil Procedure for service of process, except as stated in subsection (b) of this section and in section 519 of this title or, with respect to interested parties with no known residence or place of business within the state, by certified mail, return receipt requested. The copy of the survey that is served upon interested persons need include only the particular property in which those persons have an interest.

(2) One copy each upon the clerk, legislative body, and board of listers of each affected municipality by certified mail. The clerk shall record the notice of hearing in the municipal land records, at the agency's expense, and shall enter the names of the interested persons in the general index of transactions affecting the title to real estate.

(b) The agency also shall publish the notice of hearing in a newspaper of general circulation in the municipalities in which the proposed project lies. Publication shall be made once a week for three consecutive weeks on the same day of the week, the last publication to be not less than five days before the hearing. When service on an interested person cannot with due diligence be made within or outside the state, upon affidavit of the secretary of transportation or the secretary's designee that diligent inquiry has been made to find the interested person, the publication shall be deemed sufficient service on that person. The affidavit shall be accompanied by an affidavit of the person attempting service that the location of the interested person is unknown and that the interested person has no known agent upon whom service can be made.

(c) Compliance with these provisions of this title shall constitute sufficient notice to and service upon all interested persons and municipalities.

(d) No service need be made upon any interested person or municipality that has stipulated to necessity in accordance with section 508 of this chapter.

(e) Unless an answer denying the necessity or propriety of the proposed taking is filed by one or more parties served or appearing in the proceedings on or before the date set in the notice of hearing on the petition, the necessity and propriety shall be deemed to be conceded, and the court shall so find. (Added 1985, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), { 1; amended 1997, No. 150 (Adj. Sess.), { 8; 2007, No. 75, { 26.)