(a) Authority. The County Council, by adopting a resolution, may close to public use or abandon the County’s right to use any right-of-way. As used in this Article, right-of-way means any road, sidewalk, bikeway, crosswalk, water main, sanitary sewer, storm sewer, or storm drainage right-of-way used at any time by the public, including use by pedestrians and bicyclists. This Article applies to all rights-of-way except as provided in subsection (j) and State road rights-of-way, and may apply to a State road right-of-way if the appropriate State agency expressly consents. Before the Council adopts a resolution under this Article, the procedures in this Article must be followed. (b) Application. Any person or government agency may file an application with the Department of Transportation to close or abandon any right-of-way. In this Article, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, Department refers to the Department of Transportation. (c) Fee. Each applicant, except a County government agency, must pay with the application a filing fee set by regulation under method (3) to defray the cost of processing the application and holding a hearing. (d) Notice to property owners. After receiving an application under this Article, the Department must promptly notify by certified mail each property owner listed in the County assessment records whose property abuts the right-of-way proposed to be closed or abandoned. However, the fact that any property owner did not receive a notice under this section does not invalidate an otherwise valid closing or abandonment. (e) Notice to public. The Department must prominently post a notice of the application in or adjacent to the right-of-way to be closed or abandoned. The Department also must publish notice of the application once each week for 2 successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the County. This notice, and those sent under subsection (d), must inform recipients of the opportunity for a hearing and the date a hearing will be held. (f) Hearing. The Executive or the Executive's designee must hold a hearing on the application not earlier than 30 days after notice is mailed under subsection (d). (g) Executive's report; comments of government agencies and utilities. After the hearing held under this section, the County Executive must forward to the County Council the application, a report based on the record of the proceedings, and the Executive’s recommendation on the proposed abandonment or closing. The report must state whether the government agencies and utilities listed in subsection (h) have endorsed the proposal and the conditions, if any, of each agency's or utility’s endorsement. The Executive must not forward the report or recommendation until the Executive receives a response from each agency or other party. If an agency or other party does not respond within 60 days after notice is first published under subsection (e), the County Executive must presume that the agency or other party does not oppose the proposal. (h) Agencies. The government agencies and other parties from which the Executive must solicit a response are: (1) the Department of Transportation; (2) the Department of Permitting Services; (3) the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission; (4) the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, if any part of the right-of-way is located in the Washington Suburban Sanitary District; (5) each public utility authorized by the Public Service Commission to operate in the area and which has any overhead or underground facilities in the vicinity; (6) the governing body of each incorporated municipality or special taxing district in which any of the right-of-way is located; (7) the Police Department; (8) the County Fire and Rescue Service; and (9) any grantee of a franchise under Article 2, if the franchise authorizes the grantee to install or use any facility in, over, or under the affected right-of-way. (i) Temporary closure. This Article does not apply to any temporary closure required by a construction traffic control plan if the closure does not last longer than 12 months. If special circumstances require that a temporary closure last longer than 12 months, the Director of Transportation must apply to the Council for approval to extend the closure. The Council, by resolution, may approve an extended temporary closure under this subsection without following the procedures in this Article. (j) Storm drainage rights-of-way. (1) In this subsection, County Executive means the County Executive or the Executive’s designee. (2) The procedures in this subsection are the exclusive means to abandon all or a portion of a platted or recorded public storm drainage right-of-way that is not used for any other public purpose. (3) The County Executive may grant a partial or total abandonment of the existing storm drainage right-of-way if the Executive: (A) receives a written request, accompanied with a survey delineating the area sought to be abandoned; (B) investigates any potential impacts that the requested abandonment may have upon the existing storm drain facility; and (C) finds that: (i) the area requested to be abandoned is no longer necessary for current or anticipated public use in the foreseeable future; and (ii) abandoning the portion of the right-of-way will not adversely impact the County’s ability to access and/or maintain any portion of the storm drain facility located within the right-of-way. (4) Before granting a partial or total abandonment of a storm drainage right-of-way under this subsection, the County Executive may require the owner of the land that is presently encumbered by the storm drainage right-of-way, or the proposed owner if the County holds fee-title to the storm drainage right-of-way, to execute a maintenance and liability agreement. If the Executive requires a maintenance and liability agreement, the agreement must: (A) be on a form acceptable to the Executive; and (B) hold the County harmless for any damages to private property located in the area proposed to be abandoned that arises out of the presence, maintenance of, or other work related to the existing storm drain facility. Res. No. 9-1378 establishes guidelines for oral argument proceeding relative to road abandonments or closures. See appendix I, pt. I.

(a) The Council must consider the record of the proceedings and the report and recommendations of the County Executive, including any recommendations of the government agencies and other parties listed in Section 49-62(h), and any other relevant and material information the Council receives from any person. (b) The Council may at any time remand an application to the Executive or the Executive's designee to reopen the record or consider new information. (c) A right-of-way may be abandoned or closed if the Council by resolution finds that: (1) the right-of-way is no longer necessary for present public use or anticipated public use in the foreseeable future, or (2) the abandonment or closing is necessary to protect the health, safety and welfare of the residents near the right-of-way to be abandoned or closed. In assessing health, safety, and welfare issues, the Council may consider: (A) any adopted land use plan applicable to the neighborhood; (B) safe and efficient pedestrian and vehicular traffic patterns and flows, together with alternatives, in the immediate neighborhood, for local and through traffic; and (C) changes in fact and circumstances since the original dedication of the right-of-way. (d) A right-of-way which is the sole means of access to any property must not be abandoned or closed.

(a) At any time before the Council takes final action on the application, the applicant may request in writing that the application be withdrawn. (b) The request must be made to the County Executive if the Executive has not forwarded the application to the Council. If the Executive has forwarded the application to the Council, the request must be made to the Council.

(a) Not less than 30 nor more than 60 days after the Council adopts the resolution to approve an abandonment or closing, the Council Clerk must notify the Planning Board, the Directors of Permitting Services and Transportation, and the County Attorney that the Council has authorized the abandonment or closing. (b) The Director of Permitting Services, after receiving a copy of the Council resolution, must sign, on behalf of the County, a plat of subdivision prepared by the applicant, which the Planning Board has approved for recording, approving the abandonment or closing. (c) The County Attorney must cause to be recorded in the County land records the Council resolution which approved the abandonment or closing. (d) Any abandonment or road closure approved after July 1, 2007, is automatically revoked by operation of law if each condition specified in the approval resolution, including any later amendment to that resolution, has not been completed within the time specified in the resolution or, if the resolution did not specify a completion date, within 5 years after the Council approved the resolution or amended the resolution to insert that condition.

The action of the Council on any application for abandonment or closing is final, subject to any Council procedure for reconsideration that would otherwise apply. Any aggrieved person may appeal the action of the Council approving or denying an abandonment or closing to the Circuit Court within 30 days after the Council takes the action.

Before abandoning or closing any right-of-way after Council approval under this Article, the Director of Transportation must cause to be posted prominently in the area of the right-of-way, for at least 15 days after the Council action, a notice listing the date when the right-of-way will be abandoned or closed.

(a) If any right-of-way, except a right-of-way located entirely in a municipality which has independent zoning and subdivision authority, has not been in public use, one or more abutting property owners may petition the Planning Board to abandon the right-of-way. The petition must take the form of a preliminary plan for the subdivision of land, and must state the reason for the proposed abandonment and show any proposed relocation or realignment of the right-of-way, where applicable. (b) The petitioner must notify: (1) each person with a recorded financial interest in land abutting the right-of-way; (2) the Department of Transportation; (3) the County Fire and Rescue Service; (4) the Police Department; (5) the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, when applicable; (6) each public utility operating in the area; (7) the governing body of each incorporated municipality or special taxing district which adjoins the right-of-way sought to be abandoned; and (8) Any grantee of a franchise under Article 2, if the franchise authorizes the grantee to install or use any facility in, over, or under the affected right-of-way. (c) The Planning Board must solicit the comments of each notice recipient, and then promptly determine whether: (1) the right-of-way previously was improved or used for the purposes for which it was intended or dedicated; and (2) the right-of-way is necessary for anticipated public use. (d) If a recipient of notice under subsection (b) does not respond within 60 days after the notice is sent, the Planning Board must presume that the recipient does not oppose the proposal. (e) If the Planning Board finds that the right-of-way is not necessary for anticipated future public use or that an alternative alignment or location will not adversely affect the public interest, the Board may authorize the right-of-way to be abandoned by incorporating the abandoned land into an amended plat of subdivision. The amended subdivision plat must require the dedication of any land needed for rights-of-way, easements, and other public uses.