1     
TRAIL IMPROVEMENT AMENDMENTS

2     
2020 GENERAL SESSION

3     
STATE OF UTAH

4     
Chief Sponsor: Mike Winder

5     
Senate Sponsor: ____________

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7     LONG TITLE
8     General Description:
9          This bill addresses trails.
10     Highlighted Provisions:
11          This bill:
12          ▸     defines terms;
13          ▸     allows for the exercise of eminent domain for trails meeting certain criteria; and
14          ▸     makes technical changes.
15     Money Appropriated in this Bill:
16          None
17     Other Special Clauses:
18          None
19     Utah Code Sections Affected:
20     AMENDS:
21          78B-6-501, as last amended by Laws of Utah 2014, Chapter 59
22     

23     Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
24          Section 1. Section 78B-6-501 is amended to read:
25          78B-6-501. Eminent domain -- Uses for which right may be exercised.
26          (1) Subject to the provisions of this part, the right of eminent domain may be exercised
27     on behalf of the following public uses:
28          [(1)] (a) [all] public uses authorized by the federal government;
29          [(2)] (b) public buildings and grounds for the use of the state, and [all] other public
30     uses authorized by the Legislature;
31          [(3) (a)] (c) (i) public buildings and grounds for the use of any county, city, town, or
32     board of education;
33          [(b)] (ii) reservoirs, canals, aqueducts, flumes, ditches, or pipes for conducting water or
34     sewage, including to or from a development, for the use of the inhabitants of any county, city,
35     or town, or for the draining of any county, city, or town;
36          [(c)] (iii) the raising of the banks of streams, removing obstructions from streams, and
37     widening, deepening, or straightening their channels;
38          [(d)] (iv) bicycle paths and sidewalks adjacent to paved roads;
39          [(e)] (v) roads, byroads, streets, and alleys for public vehicular use, including for access
40     to a development, excluding trails, paths, or other ways for walking, hiking, bicycling,
41     equestrian use, or other recreational uses, or whose primary purpose is as a foot path,
42     equestrian trail, bicycle path, or walkway unless the conditions of Subsection (2) are met; and
43          [(f)] (vi) [all] other public uses for the benefit of any county, city, or town, or [its] the
44     county's, city's, or town's inhabitants;
45          [(4)] (d) wharves, docks, piers, chutes, booms, ferries, bridges, toll roads, byroads,
46     plank and turnpike roads, roads for transportation by traction engines or road locomotives,
47     roads for logging or lumbering purposes, and railroads and street railways for public
48     transportation;
49          [(5)] (e) reservoirs, dams, watergates, canals, ditches, flumes, tunnels, aqueducts and
50     pipes for the supplying of persons, mines, mills, smelters or other works for the reduction of
51     ores, with water for domestic or other uses, or for irrigation purposes, or for the draining and
52     reclaiming of lands, or for solar evaporation ponds and other facilities for the recovery of
53     minerals in solution;
54          [(6) (a)] (f) (i) roads, railroads, tramways, tunnels, ditches, flumes, pipes, and dumping
55     places to access or facilitate the milling, smelting, or other reduction of ores, or the working of
56     mines, quarries, coal mines, or mineral deposits including oil, gas, and minerals in solution;
57          [(b)] (ii) outlets, natural or otherwise, for the deposit or conduct of tailings, refuse or
58     water from mills, smelters or other works for the reduction of ores, or from mines, quarries,
59     coal mines or mineral deposits including minerals in solution;
60          [(c)] (iii) mill dams;
61          [(d)] (iv) gas, oil or coal pipelines, tanks or reservoirs, including [any] subsurface
62     stratum or formation in [any] land for the underground storage of natural gas, and in connection
63     with that, any other interests in property [which] that may be required to adequately examine,
64     prepare, maintain, and operate underground natural gas storage facilities;
65          [(e)] (v) solar evaporation ponds and other facilities for the recovery of minerals in
66     solution; and
67          [(f)] (vi) [any] occupancy in common by the owners or possessors of different mines,
68     quarries, coal mines, mineral deposits, mills, smelters, or other places for the reduction of ores,
69     or any place for the flow, deposit or conduct of tailings or refuse matter;
70          [(7)] (g) byroads leading from a highway to:
71          [(a)] (i) a residence; or
72          [(b)] (ii) a farm;
73          [(8)] (h) telecommunications, electric light and electric power lines, sites for electric
74     light and power plants, or sites for the transmission of broadcast signals from a station licensed
75     by the Federal Communications Commission in accordance with 47 C.F.R. Part 73 and that
76     provides emergency broadcast services;
77          [(9)] (i) sewage service for:
78          [(a)] (i) a city, a town, or any settlement of not fewer than 10 families;
79          [(b)] (ii) a public building belonging to the state; or
80          [(c)] (iii) a college or university;
81          [(10)] (j) canals, reservoirs, dams, ditches, flumes, aqueducts, and pipes for supplying
82     and storing water for the operation of machinery for the purpose of generating and transmitting
83     electricity for power, light or heat;
84          [(11)] (k) cemeteries and public parks, except, unless the conditions of Subsection (2)
85     are met, for a park whose primary use is:
86          [(a)] (i) as a trail, path, or other way for walking, hiking, bicycling, or equestrian use;
87     or
88          [(b)] (ii) to connect other trails, paths, or other ways for walking, hiking, bicycling, or
89     equestrian use; or
90          [(12)] (l) sites for mills, smelters or other works for the reduction of ores and necessary
91     to [their] the mills', smelters', or other works' successful operation, including the right to take
92     lands for the discharge and natural distribution of smoke, fumes, and dust, produced by the
93     operation of works, provided that the powers granted by this section may not be exercised:
94          (i) in any county where the population exceeds 20,000, or within one mile of the limits
95     of any city or incorporated town nor unless the proposed condemner has the right to operate by
96     purchase, option to purchase or easement, at least 75% in value of land acreage owned by
97     persons or corporations situated within a radius of four miles from the mill, smelter or other
98     works for the reduction of ores; nor beyond the limits of the four-mile radius; [nor]
99          (ii) as to lands covered by contracts, easements, or agreements existing between the
100     condemner and the owner of land within the limit and providing for the operation of such mill,
101     smelter, or other works for the reduction of ores; [nor] or
102          (iii) until an action shall have been commenced to restrain the operation of [such] the
103     mill, smelter, or other works for the reduction of ores.
104          (2) (a) For purposes of this Subsection (2):
105          (i) "Municipality" means the same as that term is defined in Section 10-1-104.
106          (ii) "Regionally significant trail system" means a trail that crosses the boundaries of:
107          (A) two or more counties;
108          (B) two or more municipalities; or
109          (C) a county and a municipality if the boundaries of the county and municipality are
110     not coextensive or substantially coterminous with the boundaries of each other.
111          (iii) "Trail" means a multi-use path used for:
112          (A) muscle-powered activities, including bicycling, cross-country skiing, walking,
113     jogging, and horseback riding; and
114          (B) a use compatible with the uses described in Subsection (2)(a)(iii)(A), including the
115     use of an electric assisted bicycle or motor assisted scooter, as defined in Section 41-6a-102.
116          (b) The right of eminent domain may be exercised for the purposes of a trail, if:
117          (i) the part of the trail to be acquired by eminent domain will be:
118          (A) at least 36 inches in width;
119          (B) part of a regionally significant trail system; and
120          (C) approved by resolution of any municipality or county in which the trail will be
121     located;
122          (ii) the proposed trail path cannot be developed for a habitable structure under normal
123     zoning ordinances; and
124          (iii) the proposed trail is included in an adopted trails master plan.