2014 Virginia Code
Title 33.1 - Highways, Bridges and Ferries
§ 33.1-151. (Repealed effective October 1, 2014) Abandonment of road, landing, or crossing; procedure

The governing body of any county on its own motion or upon petition of any interested landowner may cause any section of the secondary system of highways or any crossing by the road of the lines of a railway company, or crossing by the lines of a railway company of the road, deemed by it to be no longer necessary for the uses of the secondary system of highways, to be abandoned altogether as a public road, a public landing, or as a public crossing, as the case may be, by complying substantially with the following procedure:

The governing body of the county shall give notice of intention to abandon any such road, landing, or crossing by (a) posting a notice of such application at least three days before the first day of a regular term of the circuit court, at the front door of the courthouse of the county in which the section of the road, landing, or crossing sought to be abandoned as a public road, landing, or crossing is located, or (b) by posting notice in at least three places on and along the road, landing, or crossing sought to be abandoned for at least thirty days, and, in either case, by publication in two or more issues of some newspaper having general circulation in the county, and the governing body shall also give notice of its intention to abandon such road, landing, or crossing to the Commonwealth Transportation Board or the Commissioner thereof. In any case in which the road, landing, or crossing proposed to be abandoned lies in two or more counties, the governing bodies concerned shall not abandon such road, landing, or crossing unless and until the governing bodies of the other county or counties in which such road, landing, or crossing is located agree thereto; the procedure in such cases shall conform mutatis mutandis to the procedure prescribed for the abandonment of a road, landing, or crossing located entirely within a county.

When the governing body of the county gives notice of intention to abandon any such landing, the governing body shall also give such notice to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Upon petition of one or more landowners in the county whose property abuts on the road, landing, or crossing proposed to be abandoned or, if only a section of a road, landing, or crossing is proposed to be abandoned, whose property abuts on such section of the road, landing, or crossing or of the Commonwealth Transportation Board or of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, in the case of a public landing, filed with the governing body of the county within thirty days after notice is posted and published as aforesaid, but not thereafter, the governing body shall hold a public hearing on the proposed abandonment and shall give notice of the time and place of the hearing by at least two publications thereof in some newspaper having general circulation in the county and shall also give notice thereof to the Commonwealth Transportation Board or, if a public landing is sought to be abandoned, to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

If a petition be not filed as aforesaid for a public hearing, or if after a public hearing is held, the governing body is satisfied that no public necessity exists for the continuance of the section of the secondary road as a public road, or the crossing as a public crossing, or the landing as a public landing, or that the safety and welfare of the public would be served best by abandoning the section of road, landing, or the crossing, as a public road, landing, or crossing, it shall enter (i) within four months next after the thirty days during which notice was posted where no petition for a public hearing was filed, or (ii) within four months next after the public hearing an order on its minutes abandoning the section of road as a public road, or the landing as a public landing, or the crossing as a public crossing as the case may be, and thereupon the section of road shall cease to be a public road, or a public landing or a public crossing, as the case may be, or if the governing body be not so satisfied, it shall dismiss the application within the specified four months.

A finding by the governing body of a county that a section of the secondary system of highways is no longer necessary for the uses of the secondary system may be made if the following conditions exist:

A. The road is located within a residence district as the latter is defined in § 46.2-100;

B. The residence district is located within a county having a density of population exceeding 1,000 per square mile;

C. Continued operation of the section of road in question constitutes a threat to the public safety and welfare; and,

D. Alternate routes for use after abandonment of the road are readily available.

In considering the abandonment of any section of road under the provisions of this 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 give rise in subsequent proceedings, if any, to a presumption of adequate justification for the abandonment.

For the purposes of §§ 33.1-150 through 33.1-154, "landing" shall mean a place on a river or other navigable body of water for loading or unloading goods, or for the reception and delivery of passengers; the terminus of a road on a river or other navigable water, for the use of travelers and the loading and unloading of goods; a place for loading or unloading boats, but not a harbor for them.

However, no public landing shall be abandoned unless the Department of Game and 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 .