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An abutter is a person (or entity) whose property is adjacent to the property of another. In jurisdictions such as
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
,
New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...
, and
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...
, it is a defined legal term. Some jurisdictions, such as
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, may use the term adjacent landowner, while others, such as
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, use the term adjoining landowner, and the
United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it ...
defines rights of contiguous property owners (CPO). In
land use Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as settlements and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods. Land use by humans has a long ...
regulations, concerns of an abutter may be given special attention, being the one most likely to suffer specific harm from a hasty, uninformed decision. For example, a developer requesting a subdivision may be required to notify (or pay to notify) all abutters of the proposal and invite them to a public hearing. Regulations may also provide an abutter with the right to be heard at the hearing, unlike others who must request permission to be heard, at the discretion of the board. In the spirit of land use politics, even the unified voices of the concerned abutters may sound only faintly against the machinery of "progress" or well-funded special interests. However, the courts will objectively consider a proper case brought by an abutter whose rights have been arguably under-appreciated. Generally, the more abutters interested in a project, the more likely someone will object to it. Some regulations otherwise expand or limit the participation of local owners, as where notice may be required for "anyone whose property is within 200 feet of any point of the parcel under consideration." Another expansive definition would include those whose properties are across a public way or flowing waterway, where the parcels do not actually touch. Contrarily, regulations may define "abutter" to include only those people who hold record title to an adjacent parcel, thus undermining the rights of tenants, associations and partial owners (e.g., mineral rights and easement owners) to be notified, let alone heard on a proposal. This would also eliminate participation of owners of unrecorded title, such as
adverse possession Adverse possession, sometimes colloquially described as "squatter's rights", is a legal principle in the Anglo-American common law under which a person who does not have legal title to a piece of property—usually land ( real property)—ma ...
or those who have simply failed to record a deed or settle an estate involving the adjacent property.


References

Land use Urban studies and planning terminology {{Planning-stub