NMSA 66-7-363.1. Department of transportation; agreements with owners

66-7-363.1. Department of transportation; agreements with owners or lessees of highway frontage; provisions. A. Notwithstanding the responsibility of the department of transportation under the provisions of Section 66-7-363 NMSA 1978 to construct, inspect regularly and maintain fences along all highways under its jurisdiction, the department of transportation may enter into an agreement with an owner or lessee of property adjoining a public highway to keep a specified section of the highway frontage unfenced for use as roadside business; provided, however, that the owner or lessee, whoever is party to the agreement, agrees: (1) to assume full responsibility for constructing and maintaining livestock fencing on the property that the owner or lessee owns or leases in such a manner so as to prevent the entry of livestock onto the highway; and (2) to be liable for any damage caused by livestock entering upon the public highway from the owner's or lessee's property if the property in question is not fenced or the fencing not maintained pursuant to the agreement with the department of transportation. B. Nothing in this section shall preclude an owner or lessee who has entered into an agreement with the department of transportation pursuant to this section from also being subject to the penalties set out in Section 66-7-363 NMSA 1978. History: 1953 Comp., § 40A-8-10.1, enacted by Laws 1975, ch. 283, § 1; 1978 Comp., § 30-8-14, recompiled and amended as § 66-7-363.1 by Laws 2019, ch. 155, § 2.