The Greene County Road Committee on Monday approved guidelines for adding or removing a road from the Greene County Road List.

The guidelines require approval by the Greene County Commission before they become official.

The guidelines, presented by County Attorney Roger Woolsey, state, "The following are guidelines and there is no intention to bind either the Road Committee or the full (Greene County) Commission to these guidelines. These guidelines are simply a road map to enable the Road Committee to treat all citizens fairly in the request before the Committee.

"The Committee recognizes that Greene County is bound by a judicial determination as well as applicable state law that dictate how actions of the Committee and the County Legislative Body deal with issues of adding or removing roads from the County Road List.

"1- All roads running through Greene County are not county public roads; all county roads are public roads, but not all public roads are county roads. Some public roads are maintained by other governmental entities such as state or governments.

"Some roads not maintained by any governmental entity may still be public (i.e. the public has an established right to use them) while others are private. Unless roads are clearly identified on the Greene County Road List as being county roads, they are not considered county roads and the Highway Department will not and is, in fact, prohibited from performing work on such roads until the County Legislative Body takes affirmative action to accept and add the road to the Greene County Road List or until there is a judicial determination that the road is public and that the County has a duty to maintain it.

"2- Greene County has maintained a County Road List since 1987. The office of the Road Superintendent is responsible for all roads on the County Road List.

"That without credible proof that a road has been maintained by the Greene County Highway Department in the last twenty (20) years and since Jan. 1, 1988, a road will not be added or a county road extended on the County Road List, unless same is brought up to county subdivision standards before application is made to add said road or extend said county road.

"3- The County Highway Department shall maintain an up-to-date county road list for its own records. Since the road list is filed publicly with the county clerk, it provides a readily available means by which county officials and any interested citizens can determine exactly which stretches of a road are county roads.

"By adding a road or portion of a road to this list, the County Legislative Body expresses the will of the county to accept a public road as a County Road and accept responsibility for its maintenance.

"4- Greene County has a Planning Commission and approval by the Planning Commission of a road is one step in the acceptance process, but alone is not enough to make a road a county road.

"Approval of the plat by the Regional Planning Commission is not deemed to constitute or effect an acceptance by the county or by the public of a dedication of any road. (T.C.A. §13-7-405) Only the County Commission can accept a public road or any road as a county road or extend the length of a county road.

"5-Maintenance by the Greene County Highway Department of roads (i.e. grading or putting gravel on roads) prior to 1987 does not indicate that a road was ever accepted as a county road by Greene County.

"Prior to the approval of the County Road List in 1987, work on private or public roads was performed by the Highway Department. There was no list to inform the Road Superintendent which roads were County roads.

"However, if it is anticipated if there was any intent on the county to maintain a road, that there would be some maintenance or improvement of a road by Greene County since approval of the road list by Greene County.

"Therefore, even if there is some evidence of maintenance of a road by Greene County prior to 1987, if there has been no maintenance by the Greene County Highway Department since January 1, 1988, those roads will not be considered as County roads inadvertently left off the Road List.

"6- No road will be built or added to the County Road List by Greene County for the sole purpose of allowing an owner to subdivide or sell his property or to improve the number of lots that the property may be subdivided to. Roads will only be added to the Greene County Road List if built to subdivision standards.

"7- If a road has been maintained by the county since 1987, or if the length of the road is not properly shown and the road needs to be extended on a uniform road list, then all adjoining property owners shall be required to sign a right-of-way agreement granting the county a right-of-way or easement 25 feet from the center of the road for the maintenance of the roadway, shoulder, and ditch line or for improvements of the road in the future.

"If all adjoining property owners do not sign right-of-way agreements for the road or for such extension as is requested, then the County Road Committee will not consider any request to add a road to the county road list or to extend a present county road.

"8- All applications to open, change or close a road shall be made by written petition, signed by the applicant to the Commissioner of the district through which the road runs or is asked to be located specifying in particular the changes or actions asked; or if the road extends into two or more districts, or is the dividing line between the districts, then the Commissioners of the districts.

"9- No road shall be opened, changed, or closed without giving at least five (5) days notice to all parties interested of the time or roads are to be opened, changed, or closed and a surveyor or civil engineer may be employed, if necessary, to locate the same. Landowners and those controlling land touched by the proposed highway shall be deemed interested parties.

"10- If an owner of the land is so concerned as a non-resident, then notice to the owner's agent or attorney if any such agent or attorney resides in the county shall be sufficient. If there be no such agent or attorney, then the notice shall be made by publication for four (4) consecutive weeks in the newspaper having the greatest circulation in the county, the last publication being at least one (1) week before the hearing.

"11- Generally, the Road Committee does not consider a request where the county is seeking to build a new road and must condemn property in order to construct said road. The County will comply with all applicable laws in addressing such issues if condemnation of private property is required to construct a new road.

"12- Nothing in the foregoing guidelines shall inhibit, restrict, or prevent the Greene County Legislative Body from exercising any and all powers it has in adopting and approving an official Greene County Road List or in adding, extending, or closing county roads in Greene County in accordance with applicable statutory and general law."

The road committee voted to add a line stating that all documentation related to requests to add or remove a road from the list shall be maintained by the highway department.

The road committee first reviewed the guidelines at its March meeting, when they were proposed after Woolsey and Weems had worked on them for 30 days.