An Act To Require Municipalities To Maintain Access on Public Rights-of-way
Maine Legislature, Session 129, LD 1536
Committee: State and Local Government
Sponsors: KESCHL
Amends: 23 MRSA §3026-A, 23 MRSA §3028, 23 MRSA §3201, 23 MRSA §3202, 23 MRSA §3203

Legislative Document
No. 1536
H.P. 1119
House of Representatives, April 11, 2019
An Act To Require Municipalities To Maintain Access on Public 
Rights-of-way
Reference to the Committee on State and Local Government suggested and ordered printed.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative KESCHL of Belgrade.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  23 MRSA §3026-A, sub-§1-A, ¶B, as enacted by PL 2017, c. 345, §2, is 
repealed and the following enacted in its place:
B.  After the one-year waiting period required in paragraph A, the municipal officers:
(1)  Shall proceed with the discontinuance process pursuant to this section 
without retaining a public easement if the municipal officers verify that private 
easements that run with the title of the property owners' land for the purpose of 
allowing travel along the way for all abutting property owners and their lessees 
and guests have been filed with the registry of deeds; or
(2) If the municipal officers are unable to verify the easements specified in 
paragraph A,  may discontinue the road only if a public easement is retained and 
the public use for which the easement is retained is specified in writing and 
recorded in the registry of deeds.  If the municipality retains a public easement 
under this subparagraph, the municipality shall provide sufficient public 
maintenance of the public easement to allow the specified use. 
Sec. 2.  23 MRSA §3028, sub-§1, ¶¶A to C are enacted to read:
A.  A presumption of abandonment of a way is fully rebutted and removed by 
evidence that records maintained by the Department of Transportation indicate that a 
municipality received funds under chapter 19, subchapter 6 based on any mileage of 
the way during any portion of the 30 or more consecutive years of apparent 
discontinuance.
B.  A municipality may not intentionally cease to maintain a way as a means of 
creating a presumption of abandonment and a presumption of abandonment is fully 
rebutted and removed by evidence that a municipality intentionally ceased 
maintenance as a means of creating a presumption of abandonment.
C.  A municipality may not assert a presumption of abandonment for a way that was 
discontinued prior to September 3, 1965 that resulted in a public easement.  A public 
easement may be discontinued pursuant to section 3026-A.
Sec. 3.  23 MRSA §3201 is amended to read:
§3201.  Removal required; damages
When any ways are blocked or encumbered with snow, the road commissioner shall 
forthwith cause so much of it to be removed or trodden down as will render them 
passable. The town may direct the manner of doing it.  The municipal officers of a town 
may direct a road commissioner to take down fences on the line of a public highway 
when the municipal officers determine it to be necessary to prevent the drifting of snow 
in the highway.  If a fence is taken down, the municipal officers shall ensure that, as soon 
as possible after the snow season is over, the fence is replaced in as good condition as 
when taken down and without expense to the owner.  In case of sudden injury to ways or 
bridges, he the road commissioner shall without delay cause them to be repaired. All 
damage, accruing to a person in his the person's business or property through neglect of 
such the road commissioner or the municipal officers of such the town to so render 
passable ways that are blocked or encumbered with snow, within a reasonable time, may 
be recovered of such the town by a civil action. 
Sec. 4.  23 MRSA §3202, is repealed and the following enacted in its place:
§3202.  Mail routes
A town shall maintain any public right-of-way used as part of a United States postal 
route in passable condition for postal service delivery.  All maintenance must be in 
accordance with applicable United States Postal Service requirements.  If the postal 
service route is seasonal, the right-of-way must be maintained for the applicable season 
and, if the mail route is year-round, it must be maintained year-round.  For the purposes 
of this subsection, "public right-of-way" means a public right-of-way held by the town 
but does not include a private right-of-way or a road in which the town does not hold a 
right-of-way or any state or state aid highway maintained by the State.
Sec. 5.  23 MRSA §3203 is enacted to read:
§3203.  Enforcement
Failure of a town to satisfy the requirements of section 3201 or 3202, subsection 1 is 
deemed a failure to maintain a way under chapter 313 and the actions and remedies 
specified in sections 3651 to 3655 apply to the failure.
SUMMARY
This bill:
1.  Provides that in the context of a road discontinuance proceeding the municipal 
officers must proceed with a discontinuance without retaining a public easement if the 
municipal officers verify that private easements that run with the title of the property 
owners' land for the purpose of allowing travel along the way for all abutting property 
owners and their lessees and guests have been filed with the registry of deeds.  If the 
municipal officers are unable to verify those easements, they may discontinue the road 
only if a public easement is retained and the public use for which the easement is retained 
is specified.  If the municipality retains a public easement, the municipality must provide 
sufficient public maintenance of the public easement to allow the specified use;
2.  Modifies the road abandonment law to provide that:
A.  A presumption of abandonment of a way is fully rebutted and removed by 
evidence that records maintained by the Department of Transportation indicate that a 
municipality received funds under the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 23, chapter 19, 
subchapter 6 based on any mileage of the way during any portion of the 30 or more 
consecutive years of apparent discontinuance;
B.  A municipality may not intentionally cease to maintain a way as a means of 
creating a presumption of abandonment and a presumption of abandonment is fully 
rebutted and removed by evidence that a municipality intentionally ceased 
maintenance as a means of creating a presumption of abandonment; and
C.  A municipality may not assert a presumption of abandonment for any way that 
was discontinued prior to September 3, 1965 that resulted in a public easement;
3.  Moves a provision of law relating to the removal of snow fences along public 
highways from a section relating to mail routes to the section of law relating to snow 
removal;
4.  Requires a town to maintain any town public right-of-way used as part of a United 
States postal route in passable condition for postal service delivery.  All maintenance 
must be in accordance with applicable United States Postal Service requirements.   If the 
postal service route is seasonal, the right-of-way must be maintained for the applicable 
season and, if the mail route is year-round, it must be maintained year-round; and
5.  Provides that a failure of a town to meet the snow removal and other maintenance 
requirements of the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 23, section 3201 and section 3202, 
subsection 1 is deemed a failure to maintain a way under Title 23, chapter 313 and the 
actions and remedies specified in sections 3651 to 3655 of that chapter apply to such a 
failure.