Paper roads who owns

The general rules of the road apply and territorial authorities have powers to manage the roads. ULRs may be unsuitable for vehicle use and even for walking, because of the topography that they traverse. No, but many ULRs are used by landholders as part of existing adjoining pasture or forestry and may be indistinguishable from the surrounding land.

This use of the land has long been accepted by the administering authorities and is often a practical solution to weed control on the land, which would otherwise be a cost to ratepayers. Farmers may put gates or cattle stops across roads that are not fenced for livestock control purposes. Gates may only be placed with the permission of the relevant territorial authority, may not be locked and must have a sign indicating that they are on a public road.

The use of the land by adjoining landholders does not affect the legal right of the public to use the roads and does not create any legal right to the road by the adjoining landholder. In practice, many roads are traversed by farm fences and may have trees, hedges or even buildings on them. These occasionally present problems when the public wishes to use the ULR. However, people wanting to use a ULR for access need to take account of any practical issues that may need to be resolved.

Responsibility for administering ULRs lies with the relevant territorial authority a district or city council. Territorial authorities sometimes face practical difficulties in applying the legislation relating to ULRs. If the portion of road is situated in an area zoned rural under the applicable district plan, then the Council will need to undertake the additional step of obtaining consent from the Minister of Lands.

At this point, the Council must publicly notify the proposed road stopping. This involves placing two notices in the local newspaper, a sign on the portion of road to be stopped and notifying any other adjacent landowners. An interested party will have 40 days to lodge an objection to the proposal.

In the event there are no objections, or the objections are satisfactorily resolved which can go all the way to the Environment Court , the Council will publish a gazette notice in the New Zealand Gazette declaring that the portion of road has been stopped. Once the gazette notice is published, the Council can apply to Land Information New Zealand for a record of title for the stopped road.

Although the road stopping process can be time consuming and costly, the obvious benefit for a landowner with a structure built over road reserve is the removal of a defect in their title, thus avoiding a potential headache when coming to sell their property.

For the owner of farmland with a paper road running through it, stopping the road will give them the ability to use the full extent of the farm without having to consider the impact of the paper road. Home Articles How to stop a road: dealing with surplus paper roads and road encroachments. How to stop a road: dealing with surplus paper roads and road encroachments Land Print Article. Sometimes the lots were not sold and the developer retains title, sometimes in the name of a corporation or other legal entity that has gone out of existence.

In other cases, the lots were sold, but the road was not constructed or the subdivision has passed to a different person as a result of a mortgage foreclosure. The plans created prior to the adoption of zoning.

Before the adoption of modern zoning ordinances, there were no local planning boards to review requests for the subdivision of land. On occasion, tracts were surveyed along their boundaries and a scheme of lots was drawn on the boundary survey plan. This was particularly popular in the more urban areas of the state and along the shores of lakes and ponds. These old plans were drafted by hand and are artistically beautiful, but may bear little relationship to structures later built because the scheme of lots often failed to consider topography or areas where construction might be difficult, such as wetlands, streams or areas of ledge outcrops.

The lots were often only 50 feet wide and may never have been marked by permanent markers driven into the ground. The streets shown on these plans were often relocated or simply never constructed.

For the municipality, there is a lot at stake. Pursuant to RSA and :3 , all municipalities have the duty to maintain the Class IV and V highways that are located within their boundaries. The duty is perpetual, and maintaining the safety of the traveling public in both summer and winter is a significant part of the annual municipal budget. From the public works perspective, the status of each highway is used to implement a winter snow and ice clearance policy, to respond to reports that elements of the road require repair.

The governing body, in cooperation with public works personnel, develops a plan each year for the orderly maintenance and upgrade of roads.

The status of the highway is used in determining the amount of state aid that will flow to the municipality pursuant to RSA Chapter Thus, planning and budgeting for maintenance of highways is impaired when the status of an area is unclear or unknown.

Other municipal officers use the status of municipal highways in the performance of their duties. The assessors use the quality of access to a property and the presence or absence of easements burdening the property as factors in determining the value of real estate for property tax purposes. See Waterville Estates Association v. Campton , N. Since , the governing body of each municipality must, pursuant to RSA a , have a tax map drawn showing the boundary lines of each separate parcel of land, together with road frontages, and must update the map annually.

To the extent that the status of paper streets is unclear, the accuracy of the tax map may be diminished. Local land use boards use the status of highways as critical information in the performance of their duties. The planning board uses the status of the highway adjacent to land as it adjudicates requests for subdivision or site review. The zoning board of adjustment ZBA may be involved with municipal highways and vehicular traffic as it adjudicates requests for special exceptions or variances pursuant to RSA The governing body board of selectmen, town or city council together with the legislative body and the planning board, have roles to play in the acceptance of streets, in accordance with RSA , a , and Thus, uncertainty in the status of a highway complicates the administration of the zoning ordinance and creates issues in the process of planning for the orderly development of the municipality.

Local police, fire and emergency management officials use the status of streets to deliver public safety services and to determine whether certain conduct violates motor vehicle or other criminal laws. If such a plan is provided, the changes are probably relatively minor.