Legal Trails
Vermont’s Road Classification System and Legal Trails
Vermont’s road classifications and Legal Trail designation can be challenging to understand, even for the most savvy landowner, town manager, or trail builder. Finding out who owns a right-of-way, and determining who manages it and for what purposes, can be difficult. Below is a summary of frequently asked questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
The State of Vermont designates Vermont roads, ‘legal trail’, and corridors, in Vermont Statute 19 V.S.A. §302 .The classifications are summarized below.
Class 1: State-designated town highways that serve as extensions of state highway routes and carry a state highway number
Class 2: Locally designated town highways that carry more than normal amounts of traffic and connect neighboring towns
Class 3: Other town highways that are maintained for year-round use by pleasure cars
Class 4: All other town highways; minimal maintenance requirements
Legal Trail: Public rights-of-way that are not highways; no statutory maintenance requirements. They may have previously been a designated town highway having the same width as the designated town highway, or a lesser width if so designated; or they may be a new public right-of-way laid out as a trail by the selectmen for the purpose of providing access to abutting properties or for recreational use.
Unidentified corridor: Town highways that were laid out as highways, but are not on town highway maps and are not clearly observable by physical evidence of their use as a highway or trail
Legal trails are public rights-of-way under the responsibility of municipalities, similar to town roads. The land they cross is typically owned by private landowners.
The local Selectboard is responsible for regulation of town rights-of-way, including trails (19 V.S.A. § 304(5) 19 V.S.A. § 304). “Nothing in this section shall be deemed to independently authorize the condemnation of land for recreational purposes or to affect the authority of selectmen to reasonably regulate the uses of recreational trails.”
While towns are responsible for maintenance of town highways, state law gives them significant discretion over the upkeep of Class 4 roads for the “necessity of the town, the public good, and the convenience of the inhabitants” (19 V.S.A. § 310(b)) . Towns are not required to maintain Legal Trails to any defined standard, however, and maintenance of these public rights-of-way is entirely at the Selectboard’s discretion.
In some cases, a town may issue a MOU or official management policy for its Legal Trails, as is the case with the Town of Tunbridge.
As noted above, Legal Trail uses are determined by town Selectboards.
A Selectboard can control use of a trail to protect the trail – for example, restrict traffic during mud season or restrict the weight allowed. A Selectboard can also adopt an events ordinance that would require certain permits/insurance before an event of a certain size can take place on a Legal Trail.
Town highway classifications found in statutes are tied to state funding for local roads. Class 1, 2, and 3 roads qualify for available funding under state programs. Class 4 roads and legal trails that are managed for recreational use are eligible for funding for maintenance or upgrades through Recreational Trails Program (RTP) grants.
Vermont Statute provides generous landowner liability protection against physical injury or property damage that occurs to those recreating on their land (203 V.S.A. § 5791-5795). The only exceptions to this blanket protection are if the landowner performs “wanton and willful misconduct” with the intent to cause damage or an injury, or if they charge for access to use their land. As the manager of a Legal Trail, a Town does not have any specific liability protection under state law, though some protection exists under sovereign and official immunity.
Act 178 of 2006 is An Act Relating to Unidentified Corridors, which went into effect on July 1, 2006. Act 178 provided additional requirements to towns for the accounting of mileage and mapping of Class 4 Town Highways and Legal Trails, along with other substantial modifications to Chapters 3 and 7 of Title 19 – Highways of the Vermont Statutes Annotated.
According to the Vermont Agency of Transportation General Statistics, there are 547 miles of legal trails in Vermont. About half of the towns in Vermont have a legal trail, and the majority of them cross private land.
The AOT provides mileage maps to towns that include Legal Trails. These are available to the public online and easily found with a drop-down search engine.
The term ‘Legal Trail’ refers specifically to trails that follow the statutory definition listed above from the Vermont Agency of Transportation. There are thousands of miles of other trails in Vermont that exist legally and are open to the public. Some of these trails are on public land, including State lands, town forests, and the Green Mountain National Forest. Many others are on private land, often managed by VTGC Member organizations through voluntary partnerships with landowners. And in some cases public access to trails on private land is preserved in perpetuity through easements held by land trusts or trail stewardship organizations. All these trails are ‘legal,’ and underscore the importance of private landowner involvement in public-access recreation in Vermont.
Two landowners in Tunbridge have a Legal Trail, Orchard Road trail, on their property. They are challenging the town’s legal right to build, maintain, and repair the legal trail located on their property. As of fall 2024, the Orange County Superior Court and Vermont Superior Court are both involved with the issue. If a decision is made in the landowners’ favor, municipalities across the state could lose their right to manage legal trails and keep them safe and enjoyable for public use. Read the Vermont Public story here.
Our primary mission is to ensure that people will always have access to the trails and landscape of Vermont. While we fiercely respect and defend the rights of private landowners, Legal Trails are established, pre-existing rights of way that are managed by local governments in the interest of their residents. The Council is confident that the Vermont Supreme Court will not only consider these facts of the case, but also carefully consider the long term implications and harm a ruling against the rights of towns to manage these public assets would produce. You can read our full statement here.
Resources
VNRC Produced “Road and Trail Policies,” Community Strategies for Vermont’s Forests and Wildlife: A Guide for Local Action. Chapter 17, p. 63 includes relevant information.
Vermont Land Use Education and Training Collaborative produced a Roads & Highways document
Learn more about Ancient Roads legislation, which sunsetted in 2015, and related materials the state put together to support municipalities here.
The History and Law of Vermont Town Roads by Paul S. Gilles
The Public Right of Way and You by Paul S. Giles. Vermont Institute for Government
The Town of Tunbridge website includes documents related to their case, as well as other resources that are helpful in understanding the complexity of the issue.
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