Sunday, June 15, 2003

Bristol's Mendota trail project bogged down in litigation

On the model of the wildly popular Virginia Creeper Trail between Abingdon and Damascus, the City of Bristol, Virginia has been pursuing a rails-to-trails project called the Mendota trail. The City has sued all the landowners who won't cooperate. The landowners (who number 180 or more) have two legal arguments, as reported here: (1) that the railroad's title contained a reversionary clause, revesting title in the landowners when the use of the property as a railroad ceased, and (2) adverse possession, since the railroad stopped using the property in the 1970s.

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