An Act concerning certain recreational trails; placing certain conditions on the operations of such trails.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:

Section 1. As used in this act:

(a) ``Adjacent property owner'' means a person or entity, other than a responsible party, who owns property or facilities on or adjacent to a recreational trail.

(b) ``Recreational trail'' means a trail created pursuant to subsection (d) of 16 U.S.C. 1247 (1983).

(c) ``Responsible party'' means any person, for-profit entity, not-for- profit entity or governmental entity that is responsible for developing, operating or maintaining a recreational trail.

Sec. 2. (a) The responsible party, at all times after transfer of the deed to the responsible party, shall:

(1) Perform the duties imposed by K.S.A. 2-1314 and amendments thereto along the recreational trail;

(2) provide for the safety, use and accessibility of existing easements, utility facilities and access licenses along the recreational trail;

(3) provide for trail-user education and signs regarding trespassing laws and safety along the recreational trail;

(4) provide for litter control and the enforcement of laws prohibiting littering along the recreational trail, including but not limited to trail-user education and signs about laws prohibiting littering and the provision of trash receptacles and the cleanup of trash and litter;

(5) develop and maintain the recreational trail in a condition that does not create a fire hazard;

(6) designate the recreational trail for nonmotorized vehicle use with exceptions only for motorized wheelchairs and maintenance, law enforce- ment and emergency vehicles;

(7) prohibit hunting or trapping on or from the recreational trail;

(8) provide for law enforcement along the recreational trail;

(9) grant easements to adjacent property owners to permit such own- ers to cross the recreational trail in a reasonable manner consistent with the use of the adjacent property and with K.S.A. 66-301 through 66-303, and amendments thereto;

(10) (A) maintain any existing fencing between the trail and adjacent property; (B) maintain any future fencing installed between the trail and adjacent property; (C) install between the trail and adjacent property fencing corresponding in class to that maintained on the remaining sides of such adjacent property; and (D) on request of an adjacent property owner, pay one-half the cost of installing fencing between the trail and such property owner's adjacent property with a fence of the class re- quested by such property owner, if not all remaining sides of such prop- erty are fenced; and

(11) (A) maintain the trail; (B) maintain all bridges, culverts, roadway intersections and crossings on the trail, essential to the reasonable and prudent operation of the trail or needed for drainage, flood control or the use of easements for crossing the trail between adjacent properties, or cause maintenance thereof by other parties that have assumed con- tractual responsibility therefor; and (C) install and maintain any warranted traffic signs on the trail.

(b) If the responsible party is not a governmental entity, the respon- sible party shall file with the county clerk of each county where a portion of the recreational trail is or will be located a bond or proof of an escrow account in a Kansas financial institution, as defined by K.S.A. 16-117 and amendments thereto, payable to the county. The bond or proof of an escrow account shall be filed at the time of transfer of the deed to the responsible party and annually thereafter. The bond or escrow account shall be conditioned on the responsible party's performance, and shall be in an amount agreed upon between the responsible party and the county commission as sufficient to fully cover the annual costs, of:

(1) Weed control along the trail, as required by subsection (a)(1);

(2) litter control along the trail, as required by subsection (a)(4);

(3) maintenance of the trail in a condition that does not create a fire hazard, as required by subsection (a)(5);

(4) installation and maintenance of fencing between the trail and ad- jacent property within the county, as required by subsection (a)(10); and

(5) installation and maintenance of signs along the trail, as required by subsections (a)(3), (a)(4) and (a)(11)(C).

If separate bonds are submitted to or escrow accounts established for the various counties through which the trail transverses, the annual costs listed above shall be only for that portion of the trail located within the particular county that is the holder of the bond or beneficiary of the escrow. A responsible party may submit a single bond or escrow account with multiple counties respectively as coobligees or cobeneficiaries, but in that event the annual costs used in computation of the bond amount shall be for the entire trail length.

(c) If the responsible party is not a governmental entity, the respon- sible party shall file with the county clerk of each county where a portion of the recreational trail is or will be located, proof of liability insurance in an amount agreed upon between the responsible party and the county commission as sufficient. Such proof shall be filed at the time of transfer of the deed to the responsible party and annually thereafter.

(d) The provisions of this section shall apply to all recreational trails, regardless of when approval to enter into negotiations for interim trail use is or was received from the appropriate federal agency.

(e) The provisions of this section may be modified or supplemented by any city governing body for recreational trails within the corporate limits of such city in the manner provided by K.S.A. 12-137 et seq. and amendments thereto. If a city governing body adopts requirements in addition to those provided by this section, the city shall pay all costs of compliance with such additional requirements.

Sec. 3. (a) Upon receipt of permission from the appropriate federal agency to enter into negotiations for interim trail use, the responsible party shall give written notice to each adjacent property owner that the responsible party intends to build a recreational trail adjacent to the prop- erty owner's property. The responsible party may utilize the addresses to which real estate tax statements are sent, as maintained by county officials, for such notices. Such notice shall be given by first-class mail unless the notice is returned undelivered, in which case a further notice shall be given by certified mail. Such notice shall be published once each week for three consecutive weeks in the official newspaper of the county in which such trail is proposed to be located.

(b) Before commencing development or operation of a recreational trail, the responsible party shall:

(1) Prepare a project plan that includes: (A) The name and address of the responsible party, (B) an itemized estimate of the costs of the project and sources of funding for the project, and (C) maps of the rec- reational trail;

(2) submit by certified mail, not later than 180 days after receiving approval of interim trail use from the appropriate federal agency, the initial project plan to the county commission of each county where a portion of the trail is to be located outside of city limits and to the gov- erning body of each city where a portion of the trail is to be located inside the city limits;

(3) submit the final project plan to the county commission of each county where a portion of the trail is to be located outside of city limits and make subsequent reports to such county commission as to the status of trail development or operation, or both, at intervals determined by the commission and consider all recommendations the commission has re- garding the trail; and

(4) submit the final project plan to the governing body of each city where a portion of the trail is to be located inside the city limits and make subsequent reports to such city governing body as to the status of trail development or operation, or both, at intervals determined by the gov- erning body and consider all recommendations the governing body has regarding the trail.

(c) The responsible party shall complete development of a recrea- tional trail within a period of time equal to two years times the number of counties in which the recreational trail is located. Such period of time shall begin only when all cities and counties have given final approval to the project plan as required by subsections (b)(3) and (4) and the appeal period pursuant to subsection (d) of 16 U.S.C. 1247 (1983) has expired. Any time during which there is pending any court action challenging the development or use of the trail shall not be computed as part of the time limitation imposed by this subsection.

(d) The provisions of this section shall apply to only recreational trails for which approval to enter into negotiations for interim trail use is re- ceived from the appropriate federal agency on or after the effective date of this act.

Sec. 4. An adjacent property owner has no duty of care to any person using a recreational trail except that this section shall not relieve an ad- jacent property owner from liability for injury to another that is a direct result of such property owner's gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct.

Sec. 5. A city or county may institute procedures for recourse against the responsible party pursuant to 16 U.S.C. 1247 (1983) and 49 C.F.R. 1152.29 (1986) upon the failure of the responsible party to comply with the provisions of this act.

Sec. 6. If any provision of this act or the application thereof to any person or circumstances is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of this act which can be given effect without the invalid provisions or application. To this end the provisions of this act are severable.

Sec. 7. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its publication in the statute book.

Approved May 11, 1996.