republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/152/hb-397.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 17 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION OWNERSHIP OF ABANDONED LAND ENCUMBERED BY THE DEPARTMENT’S RIGHT-OF-WAY EASEMENTS.	The purpose of this Act is to reduce the cost to the State in addressing ownership of land encumbered by public right-of-way permanent easements when the land has been abandoned by a prior owner and a current owner cannot be located. This Act will allow the Department, in the name of the State, to obtain fee simple ownership of land encumbered by right-of-ways, previously conveyed to the Department by permanent easement, when such right-of-ways are part of a current Department project. This Act requires the Department to promulgate regulations to establish the procedures for establishing that the land has been abandoned and for recording its fee simple ownership of the land.	us/states/de	Delaware General Assembly	152	HB 397	Delaware HB 397 (152)	bill		enacted	Sean Matthews	1	7	2	2024-05-15	2024-07-17	openstates	ocd-bill/2a6943e8-a816-4a0d-ad21-6a12364d466e	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=141386	895accfb14df6fe419d0a83839ffe021dbf11c51b86544dd9022fb8aacf5b7e4	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-de

Delaware HB 397 (152) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 17 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION OWNERSHIP OF ABANDONED LAND ENCUMBERED BY THE DEPARTMENT’S RIGHT-OF-WAY EASEMENTS.

The purpose of this Act is to reduce the cost to the State in addressing ownership of land encumbered by public right-of-way permanent easements when the land has been abandoned by a prior owner and a current owner cannot be located. This Act will allow the Department, in the name of the State, to obtain fee simple ownership of land encumbered by right-of-ways, previously conveyed to the Department by permanent easement, when such right-of-ways are part of a current Department project. This Act requires the Department to promulgate regulations to establish the procedures for establishing that the land has been abandoned and for recording its fee simple ownership of the land.

Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. Bill Text (committee substitute) — source

Votes

• SM — 39–0 (pass) · lower
• 2/3 — 21–0 (pass) · upper

Sponsors

• Sean Matthews — primary (person)

Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

• 2024-05-15 Introduced and Assigned to Transportation Committee in House introduction, referral-committee
• 2024-06-12 Reported Out of Committee (Transportation) in House with 6 On Its Merits committee-passage
• 2024-06-18 Passed By House. Votes: 39 YES 2 ABSENT passage
• 2024-06-18 Assigned to Environment, Energy & Transportation Committee in Senate introduction, referral-committee
• 2024-06-26 Reported Out of Committee (Environment, Energy & Transportation) in Senate with 1 Favorable, 5 On Its Merits committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2024-06-30 Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES passage
• 2024-07-17 Signed by Governor executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/2a6943e8-a816-4a0d-ad21-6a12364d466e. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).