Opinion ID: 4116908
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Operation of the Paper Streets Act

Text: [¶15] The Paper Streets Act was enacted in 1987 to “clarify title to old, proposed, unaccepted streets shown on subdivision plans, and to eliminate the possibility of ancient claims.” Id. ¶ 24 (citation and quotation marks omitted). The various sections of the Act must be read as complementary, Fournier v. Elliott, 2009 ME 25, ¶ 21, 966 A.2d 410, and sections 3031 through 3034 “shall be liberally construed to affect the legislative purpose of” the Act. 23 M.R.S. § 3035 (2016). 11 [¶16] Section 3031 of the Act grants the public rights of incipient dedication to ways laid out in a recorded subdivision plan, but terminates those rights if the proposed way is not accepted by the municipality within twenty years from the date of recording. 23 M.R.S. § 3031(1). It also grants a private right of way over those ways to parties who acquire title to land shown on the same subdivision plan as the proposed way, and terminates those private rights if the way is not constructed within twenty years after recording and the private rights “are not constructed and utilized” within the same time. Id. § 3031(2). [¶17] Section 3032 provides that if, within the later of fifteen years after recording or September 29, 1997, a municipality has not voted to accept a proposed way laid out in a subdivision plan recorded prior to September 29, 1987, and it has been neither constructed nor used as a way, then the way is deemed vacated as though by order of the municipality pursuant to 23 M.R.S. § 3027 (2016). 23 M.R.S. § 3032(1-A). A municipality may extend the deadline by filing notice. Id. § 3032(2). Any person “claiming to own a proposed, unaccepted way . . . deemed vacated under section 3032” must record notice and bring a claim pursuant to section 3033. 23 M.R.S. § 3033 (2016). 12