As Amended
SEC. 65-1-51. Land adjacent to highway rights of way; wetlands.
The Mississippi State Highway Commission is hereby authorized to acquire by gift, purchase, or otherwise, and to have the State Highway Department improve and maintain strips of land necessary for the restoration, preservation and enhancement of scenic beauty adjacent to the state highway rights-of-way. The commission may acquire and have the State Highway Department develop publicly owned and controlled rest and recreation areas and sanitary and other facilities within or adjacent to the highway right-of-way reasonably necessary to accommodate the traveling public.
The Mississippi State Highway Commission, in its discretion, is hereby authorized to acquire by gift, purchase, or otherwise, including the exercise of eminent domain, public or privately owned wetlands and other lands suitable for creation as wetlands for the purpose of mitigating wetland losses and replacing those wetlands purchased and damaged or eliminated by development and use, on a basis not to exceed that required by the Federal Highway Administration as a condition for receiving federal aid funds, provided that some governmental agency agrees, without compensation, to accept title to the lands acquired and maintain such lands as wetlands in perpetuity. However, the commission shall replace those coastal wetlands purchased and damaged or eliminated by development and use on the basis required by the "Coastal Wetlands Protection Law" and regulations promulgated thereunder by the Bureau of Marine Resources.
SOURCES: Codes, 1942, Sec. 8023.3; Laws, 1966, ch. 498, Sec. 1; 1981, ch. 398, Sec. 1; 1981, ch. 464, Sec. 7; 1989, ch. 382, Sec. 1, eff from and after passage (approved March 14, 1989).