Terms Used In Vermont Statutes > Title 19 > Chapter 7 - Laying Out, Discontinuing, and Reclassifying Highways

• Acceptance: means receipt of the right-of-way needed for a new highway, in some cases this may include a completed roadway. See
• Agency: means the Agency of Transportation. See
• Altered: means a major physical change in the highway such as a change in width from a single lane to two lanes. See
• Annual meeting: when applied to towns shall mean the annual town meeting in March or an adjournment thereof. See
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Bicycle: means every pedal-driven device propelled by human power having two or more wheels on which a person may ride, including a so-called pedal vehicle that may have an enclosed cab. See
• Board: means the Transportation Board. See
• Business concern: means a corporation, partnership, individual, or other private entity engaged in a business or professional activity necessitating tangible property for the carrying on of the business or profession on the premises. See
• Classification: means the categorization of all town highways pursuant to section 302 of this title. See
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles responsible to the Secretary for the administration of the Department. See
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Department: means the Department of Motor Vehicles. See
• Develop: means the partition or division of any tract of land of any size by a person through sale, lease, transfer, or any other means by which any interest in or to the land or a portion of the land is conveyed to another person that will require the construction of permanent new or enlarged points of access to a State or town highway other than a limited access facility pursuant to subsection 1702a(a) of this title; excluding, however, tracts of land located entirely within a city or incorporated village. See
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Discontinued: means a previously designated town highway which through the process of discontinuance all public rights are reconveyed to the adjoining landowners. See
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• District clerk: means the individual elected as clerk of a union school district by the voters of the district pursuant to the provisions of sections 715 (union school district organizational meeting), 735 (unified union school district officers and election), and 753 (union elementary and union high school district officers and election) of this chapter. See
• Division: means a major unit of the Agency engaged in line functions other than the Department of Motor Vehicles. See
• Electorate: means the qualified voters in a school district voting at a properly warned school district meeting. See
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Family: means two or more persons who are living together in the same quarters. See
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fees: shall mean earnings due for official services, aside from salaries or per diem compensation. See
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• highway: includes rights-of-way, bridges, drainage structures, signs, guardrails, areas to accommodate utilities authorized by law to locate within highway limits, areas used to mitigate the environmental impacts of highway construction, vegetation, scenic enhancements, and structures. See
• Highway: shall include park and rides. See
• Highways: include all facilities defined in subdivisions 1(12), (20), and (23) of this title. See
• Individual: means a person who is not a member of a family as defined in this section. See
• inhabitants: shall mean the population of the political division referred to, as ascertained by the national census last completed before the time when such population is a material fact. See
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Justice: when applied to a person, other than a Justice of the Supreme Court, shall mean a justice of the peace for the county for which he or she is elected or appointed. See
• Landowner: means a person who has title to real estate in fee simple or a life estate. See
• Lay out: means the legal procedure establishing the alignment or right-of-way of a highway. See
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Life estate: A property interest limited in duration to the life of the individual holding the interest (life tenant).
• Member district: means either a town school district that is a member district as defined in section 702 (definitions) of this title or a town in a member district if the member district is itself a union elementary or union high school district, as applicable. See
• Month: shall mean a calendar month and "year" shall mean a calendar year and be equivalent to the expression "year of our Lord. See
• Municipality: shall include a city, town, town school district, incorporated school or fire district or incorporated village, and all other governmental incorporated units. See
• Necessity: means a reasonable need that considers the greatest public good and the least inconvenience and expense to the condemning party and to the property owner. See
• Normal relocation: means constructing a replacement facility, in kind, that is both functionally equivalent to the existing facility and necessary for the continuous operation of the utility service, highway project economy, or sequence of highway construction or maintenance. See
• Oath: shall include affirmation where by law an affirmation may be substituted. See
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: shall include any natural person, corporation, municipality, the State of Vermont or any department, agency, or subdivision of the State, and any partnership, unincorporated association, or other legal entity. See
• Person: includes a municipality or State agency. See
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• real estate: shall include lands, tenements, and hereditaments and all rights thereto and interests therein, and pews or slips in places of public worship shall be treated as real estate. See
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Reclassify: means to change the classification of a highway using the legal process described in this chapter. See
• Relocation: means required adjustments of utility facilities necessitated by planned highway maintenance or construction activities. See
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• road: shall include bridges thereon and their approaches. See
• School board: means the board of school directors elected to manage the schools of a school district, the prudential committee of an incorporated school district, the supervisory union board of directors, and the supervisors of unorganized towns and gores. See
• School district: means a school district organized as a town school district, city school district, incorporated school district, or union school district, unless clearly inapplicable. See
• School district meeting: means a duly warned meeting of a school district at which questions are presented to the electorate. See
• School year: means the year beginning July 1 and ending the next June 30. See
• seal: shall include an impression of the official seal made upon paper alone or by means of a wafer or wax affixed thereto. See
• Secretary: means the head of the Agency who shall be a member of the Governor's Cabinet responsible directly to the Governor for the administration of the Agency. See
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Education. See
• Selectboard: includes village trustees and city councils. See
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See
• State Board: means the State Board of Education established by chapter 3 of this title. See
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Supervisory union: means an administrative, planning, and educational service unit created by the State Board under section 261 of this title, that consists of two or more school districts; if the context clearly allows, the term also means a supervisory district. See
• sworn: shall include affirmed. See
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Town: includes incorporated villages and cities. See
• town: means a city or incorporated village. See
• town clerk: means the elected clerk of that member district. See
• town school district: means a city school district, or incorporated school district, and does not mean a union school district. See
• Traffic Committee: consists of the Secretary of Transportation or designee, the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles or designee, and the Commissioner of Public Safety or designee and is responsible for establishing speed zones, parking and no parking areas, rules for use of limited access highways, approval of the testing of automated vehicles as defined in 23 V. See
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Unified union school district: means a union school district organized to provide for the education of the district's resident students in all grades, prekindergarten through grade 12. See
• union district: includes a union elementary school district, union high school district, and unified union school district unless the context clearly limits it to fewer than all options. See
• Union school district: means a municipality formed under the provisions of this chapter that is governed by a single publicly elected board and that is responsible for the education of students residing in two or more towns in the grades for which the district is organized by:

• Utility: means a privately, publicly, or cooperatively owned line, facility, or system for producing, transmitting, or distributing communications, cable television, power electricity, light, heat, gas, oil, crude products, water, steam, waste, stormwater not connected with the highway drainage, or any other similar commodity, including any fire or police signal system or highway lighting system, which directly or indirectly serves the public. See