Any interest in streets, alleys, easements for public rights of passage, easements for drainage, and easements for a public utility granted to a locality as a condition of the approval of a site plan may be vacated according to either of the following methods:
1. By a duly executed and acknowledged written instrument of the owner of the land which has been or is to be developed in accordance with the site plan, declaring the interest or interests to be vacated, provided the governing body or authorized agent of the locality where the land lies consents to the vacation. The instrument shall be recorded in the same clerk’s office wherein is recorded the written instrument describing the interest in real property to be vacated. The execution and recordation of the instrument shall operate to divest all public rights in, and to reinvest the owner with the title to the interests which formerly were held by the governing body; or
2. By ordinance of the governing body in the locality in which the property which is the subject of an approved site plan lies, provided that no interest shall be vacated in an area in which facilities, for which bonding is required pursuant to §§ 15.2-2241 through 15.2-2245, have been constructed.
The ordinance shall not be adopted until after notice has been given as required by § 15.2-2204. The notice shall clearly describe the interest of the governing body to be vacated by reference to the recorded instrument on which it was created and state the time and place of the meeting of the governing body at which the adoption of the ordinance will be voted upon. Any person may appear at the meeting for the purpose of objecting to the adoption of the ordinance. An appeal from the adoption of the ordinance may be filed within thirty days of the adoption of the ordinance with the circuit court having jurisdiction of the land over which the governing body’s interest is located. Upon appeal, the court may nullify the ordinance if it finds that the owner of the property, which has been developed or is to be developed in accordance with the approved site plan, will be irreparably damaged. If no appeal from the adoption of the ordinance is filed within the time above provided or if the ordinance is upheld on appeal, a certified copy of the ordinance of vacation may be recorded in the clerk’s office of any court in which the instrument creating the governing body’s interest is recorded.The execution and recordation of an ordinance of vacation shall operate to destroy the effect of the instrument which created the governing body’s interest so vacated and to divest all public rights in and to the property and vest title in the streets, alleys, easements for public rights of passage, easements for drainage, and easements for a public utility as may be described in, and in accordance with, the ordinance of vacation.
History
1990, c. 813, § 15.1-480.1; 1997, c. 587.
