Coastal Services Center

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A Continuing Interest In Filled Lands? (1 of 1)

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A Continuing Interest in Filled Lands?

An emerging view of the Public Trust interest in filled lands is that the public interest can be revived when the lands cease to be used for the purposes for which they were conveyed.

The 1989 Vermont Supreme Court case, Vermont v. Central Vermont Railway, serves as one example of this changing viewpoint:

• The Vermont Central Railroad, under authority of an 1827 statute granting owners the right to erect wharves by filling in Lake Champlain, filled in “a substantial area” of the lake. The filling continued until 1972.
• In the late 1970s, commercial navigation on Lake Champlain declined such that the railroad wanted to sell the highly valuable 1.1-mile strip of filled land to a real estate developer.
• The state and the city of Burlington objected.
• The court held that the railroad had a title in the filled lands—subject to the condition that the lands be used for railroad, wharf, or storage purposes. The state had the right of reentry in the event that the condition was breached.