Conn. Gen. Stat. » Title 13a — HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES · Chapter 238 — Highway Construction and Maintenance
Connecticut General Statutes

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 13a-71 (2026)

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✓ current as of May 2026
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(a) No person, company or corporation, except the state or municipal corporations, shall lay out any highway in this state less than fifty feet in width unless with the prior written approval of a majority of the selectmen of the town, or of the burgesses of the borough, or of the common council of the city, wherein such highway is located, except that, where there exists a planning commission in such town, borough or city operating under the general statutes or special act, which commission has adopted subdivision regulations, such written approval shall be obtained from such planning commission.

(b) No highway except a state highway shall be opened to the public until the grade, layout, location, width and improvements of such highway have received the written approval of the majority of the selectmen of the town or of the common council of the city or of the warden and burgesses of the borough wherein such highway is located, except that, where there exists a planning commission in such town, city or borough operating under the general statutes or special act, which commission has adopted subdivision regulations, such approval shall be obtained from such planning commission, nor until such approval has been filed in the office of the clerk of such town, city or borough, as the case may be. No such clerk shall receive or place on file any map of any such new highway or highways, or any map of land showing such new highways, until he has received a certificate, signed by a majority of the selectmen of the town or of the planning commission, or, if such layout is within a city or borough, a certificate signed by the mayor of such city or the warden of such borough or by a majority of the planning commission, as the case may be, that such new layout has been approved by such selectmen or common council or warden and burgesses or planning commission as herein provided.

(c) If any highway has been laid out in violation of the provisions of this section, such highway shall be immediately closed by the first selectman of the town or, in the case of a city or borough, by the officer having charge of the highways in such city or borough, and shall be kept closed until such time as the grade, layout, location, width and improvement of such highway have received the approval herein provided for. The first selectman of a town, or officer having in charge the highways in a city or borough, who fails to comply with the requirements of this section concerning the closing of such new highways as have not been approved as herein provided shall be fined not more than twenty-five dollars.

(1949 Rev., S. 2141; 1958 Rev., S. 13-25; 1959, P.A. 329; 1963, P.A. 226, S. 71.)

History: 1959 act made minimum width of highway in Subsec. (a) 50 feet instead of three rods and added requirement that approval of planning commission be obtained where one exists; 1963 act replaced previous provisions: See title history.

Constitutionality. 95 C. 365. Requirements must be complied with; bond given to secure performance of agreement not made in accordance with terms of statute unenforceable. 106 C. 40. Fact that original owner of tract may have violated statute in layout and map of proposed street does not destroy right of grantee to use street referred to in deed. 112 C. 557. Cited. 120 C. 210. Approval of selectmen under section does not constitute an acceptance of such street as a public highway. 146 C. 474. History of section; not possible to circumvent requirements by claim of common law dedication. 159 C. 107.

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Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4 cases, 1965–2006 · leading case: Town of Lebanon v. Woods, 215 A.2d 112 (Conn. 1965).
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Town of Lebanon v. Woods, 215 A.2d 112 (Conn. 1965). · cites it 2× “Secondly, the selectmen were not an "other body exercising the powers of .”
Morris v. Congdon, 893 A.2d 413 (Conn. 2006). · cites it 2× “Prior to 1963, General Statutes § 13-25, now codified at General Statutes § 13a-71, provided that “[n]o person, company or corporation, except municipal corporations, shall lay out any street or highway .”
Lynch v. Town of West Hartford, 355 A.2d 42 (Conn. 1974). · cites it 2× “The town does not argue that it ever formally accepted the Rose Avenue extension in accordance with statutory requirements; 2 see General Statutes § 13a-48; nor does the town allege compliance with the requirements of General Statutes § 13a-71, pertaining to the layout of…”
Thompson v. Town of Portland, 266 A.2d 893 (Conn. 1970). · cites it 3× “Various minor changes were made in the statute, but no major change occurred until 1959, when the statute was amended to require the approval of the planning commission where one existed in such town, city or borough and where the commission had adopted subdivision regulations.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.