North Carolina is one of a handful of states — others include Alaska, Delaware, Virginia, and West Virginia — where counties don’t have their own road departments. This means most roads outside of cities are either owned by the states or are private. However, some roads don’t have any clear owners and are effectively abandoned, leading them to be called orphan roads.
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This becomes a problem when people buy a home not realizing that the road that the home is on is orphaned. Eventually, the road wears out and homeowners face thousands of dollars of maintenance costs. They then typically demand that the state take over maintenance, which would force other taxpayers to subsidize the homeowners. North Carolina’s John Locke Foundation asked the Antiplanner to take a look at this issue. Continue reading
