Section 228.110

Title XIV ROADS AND WATERWAYS

Chapter 228

Effective - 28 Aug 2007   

  228.110.  Roads may be vacated, how. — 1.  Any twelve residents of the township or townships through which a road runs may make application for the vacation of any such road or part of the same as useless, and the repairing of the same an unreasonable burden upon the district or districts.  The petition shall be publicly read on the first day of the term at which it is presented, and the matter continued without further proceedings until the next term.

  2.  Notice of the filing of such petition and of the road sought to be vacated shall be posted up in not less than three public places in such township or townships, at least twenty days before the first day of the next term of the commission, and a copy of the same shall be personally served on all the persons residing in the district whose lands are crossed or touched by the road proposed to be vacated in the same manner as other notices are required to be served by law; and at the next regular term the same shall again be publicly read on the first day thereof.

  3.  If no remonstrance is made thereto in writing, signed by at least twelve residents of the township, the commission may proceed to vacate such road, or any part thereof, at the cost of the petitioners; but if a remonstrance thereto in writing, signed by at least twelve residents of such township or townships, is filed, and the commission after considering the same shall decide that it is just to vacate such road, or any part thereof, against the vacation of which the remonstrance was filed, the costs shall be paid by the parties remonstrating, and the original costs, and damages for opening such vacated road shall be paid by the petitioners to those who paid the same, except that if five years have elapsed since the original opening of the same no such reimbursement shall be made.

  4.  Notwithstanding any other provision of this section to the contrary, in any county with a charter form of government, any twenty-five residents of the county through which a road subject to this section runs and who reside on any portion of such road or on another road that intersects such road and within one mile of the right-of-way to be vacated, may apply for the vacation of such road or part of such road as no longer serving the public health, safety, and welfare.  The county may, by order or ordinance, provide for notice and hearing of such petitions and for filing and hearing remonstrances against them.

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(RSMo 1939 § 8482, A.L. 1990 H.B. 1070, A.L. 2007 S.B. 22)

Prior revisions: 1929 § 7836; 1919 § 10634; 1909 § 10445

CROSS REFERENCES:

City streets, how vacated, 71.250 to 71.280

Temporary abandonment to permit mining, limited to certain counties, procedure, 229.420 to 229.450

Vacation of streets in cemeteries, proceedings, 214.060, 214.070

(1957) "Useless" as used in this section is not synonymous with "unnecessary" or "unrequired"; but a finding that a road is of no public utility is necessary to the vacation of a road.  Evidence held insufficient to support vacation order.  Burrows v. County Court Carter Co. (A.), 308 S.W.2d 299.

(1964) Proof of abandonment of public road by showing five or more years of continuous nonuse by public held sufficient in ejectment action and plaintiff did not need to obtain a county court order of abandonment pursuant to section 228.110.  Corbin v. Galloway (A.), 382 S.W.2d 827.

(1966) This section provides only way that title to lands dedicated in perpetual trust and platted for the purpose of establishing streets thereon as they are needed can be abandoned.  State v. Herman (Mo.), 405 S.W.2d 904.