Chap. 212.-An ACT to provide for the abandonment as a part of the State
highway system of sections of roads and of railroad crossings no longer
necessary for the uses of the State highway system; to provide for the
abandonment of such section of road or railroad crossings as public high-
ways, and proceedings therefor. [S B 105}

Approved March 19, 1926.

Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia as follows:
Section 1. That when in heretofore or hereafter laying out, con-
structing or maintaining sections of roads in the State highway sys-
‘em, a part of the said road has been or is straightened or the location
of a part thereof altered, and a section of the old road is deemed by the
chairman of the highway commission no longer necessary for the uses
of the State highway system, or an existing crossing by the said road
of the lines of a railway company, or a crossing by the lines of a railway
company by said road is deemed by the said chairman no longer nec-
essary as a part of the State highway system, the chairman of the
highway commission, by and with the approval of the State highway
commission, may abandon as a part of the State highway system the
section of the old road no longer deemed necessary for the uses of the
State highway system, or said crossing by the road of the lines of a
railway company, or crossing by the lines of the said railway company
of the said road, as the case may be.

The opening of the new section of road by the chairman of the
highway commission and the entry by the State highway commission
upon its minutes of the abandonment of the section of the old road or
the railroad crossing, as the case may be, and its approval thereof,
shall be sufficient to constitute such abandonment.

Section 2. The chairman of the highway commission may also
cause any such section of the old road, or any such 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 him to be no longer necessary
for the uses of the State highway system, to be abandoned altogether
as a public road or as a public crossing, as the case may be, by com-
plying substantially with the following procedure:

The said chairman may file application with the State highway
commission, setting out the section of the road or the crossing sought
to be abandoned as a public road. The State highway commission,
upon the filing of such application, shall give notice thereof by 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 court house
of the county in which the section of the road or crossing sought to be
abandoned as a public road or crossing is located, or if it be partly in
two or more counties, at the front door of the court house of each of
said counties, or by publication in two or more issues of some news-
paper published in the said county, or one of them, and shall also mail
by registered mail a notice of the said application to the board of
supervisors of the said county or counties.

Upon petition of one or more landowners in said county or coun-
ties, affected by such proposed abandonment, or of the board ot!
supervisors of either of said counties, filed with the State highway
commission within thirty days after notice is posted or published anc
mailed as aforesaid, but not thereafter, the State highway commission
shall hold a public hearing in one of the said counties for the considera-
tion of the said application, and shall give notice of the time and place
of said hearing by at least two insertions in some newspaper publishec
in said county, or one of them, or circulating therein, and also mai
notice of said hearing to the board of supervisors of said county ot
counties.

If petition be not filed as aforesaid for a public hearing, or if afte:
crossing under the provisions of this act as a part of the State highway
system, such section of road or such crossing, shall remain a public
road or crossing as the case may be, unless abandoned or discontinued
as such under the provisions of this act or under the provisions of
section nineteen hundred and eighty-four, of the Code, and subject
to the authority of the board of supervisors or other local road author-
ities, as provided by law. Incase of proceedings for the abandonment
of any section of road, not including a railroad crossing situated less
than one and one-half miles from another public crossing over the
same railroad, as a public road, under the provisions of this act, the
board of supervisors or the local road authorities, as the case may be,
in so far as such section of road is located within the county of such
board of supervisors or local road authorities, shall have authority to
take over such: section of road, not including said railroad crossing,
and maintain it as a public road, as provided by law, provided, how-
ever, the board of supervisors or local road authorities, as the case
may be, shall have entered an order or resolution to that effect upon
its minutes and shall have given notice thereof to the chairman of the
highway commission within thirty days from the posting or publishing
and the mailing of the notice of the application for the abandonment
of such section of road as a public road, as hereinafter provided.