Sec. 20a. A township with the prior written consent of the board of county road commissioners and upon petition to the township board by 51% of the property owners whose frontage abuts a road may commence an action in circuit court to have the road determined to be a public highway and to determine the length and boundaries of the road. If the court finds that there has been public use of the road for at least 10 years and that public authorities have expended public money on the road, it shall enter an order that the road has become a public highway setting forth the length and boundaries of that public highway. If the court finds that the road has not become a public highway, the township may in the same action acquire by purchase or condemnation in accordance with section 20h of this chapter the property rights of those owners who in the action claim that the road is not a public highway and the court shall enter its order that the road is a public highway and set forth the length and boundaries of that public highway.
Mich. Comp. Laws § 221.20a
Declaration of road as public highway; consent; petition; action in circuit court; order; purchase or condemnation
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case 255 Mich. App. 637 - Ambs v. Kalamazoo County Road Commission (2003)
Most recently applied in 255 Mich. App. 637 - Ambs v. Kalamazoo County Road Commission (May 2003)
Add. 1974, Act 336, Imd
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Michigan Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Michigan statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.