Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

CHAPTER V.

SECTION 1. The city council is hereby authorized to lay out, establish and maintain public squares, parks, grounds, lanes, streets, alleys, wharves and levees, and to vacate, change or enlarge the same and to make any and all improvements, and perform all acts in relation thereto necessary for the wellfare of said city.

SEC. 2. It may take private property for any of the purposes in the preceding section mentioned as follows: Whenever twenty or more freeholders of said city shall represent to said council by petition that such enterprise or improvement is necessary, and giving therein a general description thereof, and the names of the persons, if known, whose property or interests will be affected thereby, and shall post a copy of their said petition with notice of the time when the same will be presented to said council, and the names of three disinterested freeholders and voters in said city who they will pray the council to have appointed commissioners in two of the most public places in each ward in said city, at least ten days before the same shall be presented, or publish the same in some weekly newspaper published in said city, for at least two successive weeks, before [such] presentment; the said council, upon satisfactory proof that the said petition and notices were duly posted or published as aforesaid, may proceed to consider the prayer of the petitioners. It shall hear all arguments that may be offered for or against the same, or for or against the appointment of the commissioners mentioned in the petition notice. If in the opinion of the said council there is probable cause for belief that the said improvement or enterprise may be desirable and for the best interests of the public, and there is no good cause shown why the commissioners in the notice mentioned should not be appointed, it shall appoint the said persons commissioners. If good cause be shown why the said persons or either of them should not be so appointed then the council shall appoint in the place of the person or persons so disqualified other persons, disinterested freeholders and voters of said city, and shall enter an order in their proceedings requiring the said commissioners to make examination into the subject matter in the said petition referred to, and to make return to said council whether or not the prayer of the said petitioners or any part thereof ought to be granted. SEC. 3. The clerk shall within three days after such appointment notify the said commissioners thereof in writing, embracing in such notice a copy of the said order with the said petition attached to the copy served upon the first named or chairman of such com missioners. Should the said commissioners, or either of them refuse or be unable to act, the city council shall, at its next regular session,

appoint others in their stead, whom the clerk shall also notify, and a memorandum of such substitute shall be endorsed upon said notice. SEC. 4. The said commissioners at such time as they may agree upon within thirty days of the time of their appointment shall proceed to view the premises in question. Before proceeding to do so they shall cause to be given at least five days notice of the time and place of such examination, to all the owners and occupants of the property to be taken upon the persons residing thereon, by delivering to them personally a notice or leaving the same at their place of residence; upon non-residents by publishing such notice for two consecutive issues in some weekly paper published in said city.

SEC. 5. At the time and place mentioned in their notice the said commissioners shall meet and hear all that may be offered for or against said enterprise. They shall take all testimony that may be offered, and reduce the same to writing, and each of such commissioners is hereby authorized to administer oaths and affirmations to all persons during the pendency of such proceeding, and examine persons under oath touching any matter embraced within or growing out of said petition.

SEC. 6. The said commissioners shall also ascertain as well as they can from the owners and others what amount of damage will be claimed by parties interested and also what, if anything, will be voluntarily contributed to such improvement, and also what in the judgment of the commissioners the aggregate damages of such improvement will be to the parties interested over and above the benefits thereof. If in the opinion of the commissioners the improvement petitioned for or any part thereof is necessary they shall cause the same to be surveyed and a map and plat thereof made.

SEC. 7. At the next general meeting of the council after such examination or at such other general or special meeting as the council at such first meeting may order the commissioners shall make a report of their proceedings and findings in writing to the said council for its action embracing therein said plat and survey and a description of the property that will be taken or in the judgment of the commissioners will be injured or directly damaged or benefited by such improvement together with the names of the parties owning the same if known.

SEC. 8. Upon the report of the commissioners being submitted the council shall at that or at some meeting by them there and then specified proceed to pass upon the same and shall hear such arguments as may be offered for or against the same. The council may affirm such report in whole or in part or reject the same in the whole or in part and may make any order in the premises it may deem desirable. If the council decide in favor of such improvement or any part thereof then it shall order the commissioners to again proceed to

view the premises and assess the damages and benefits directly resulting therefrom, and in such order it shall designate a time and place when and where the commissioners shall first meet for said purpose.

SEC. 9. The council, if deemed by it expedient, may purchase of the parties owning the same, the property proposed to be taken for said improvement, or any part of the same, and may also agree with parties benefited as to what amount their property shall be assessed for such improvement. They may make such agreement either before or after such property is assessed by the commissioners. Such agreement shall be in writing; shall be signed by the president of the council, clerk, and parties interested, filed in the office of the clerk, and copied in the order book hereinafter mentioned. Said agreement to be valid must be approved by a vote of the said couneil upon a call of ayes and noes, and must be assented to by at least eight-ninths of all the council elected.

SEC. 10. If no agreement is made between the council and all the parties interested, then the said commissioners shall, at the time and place designated, proceed to again view the premises. They may adjourn from time to time and place to place, until such assessment is completed. They shall hear all parties that may be interested, take such testimony as may be offered, and reduce the same to writing. They shall make a separate assessment of damages and benefits to each particular portion of property or interest directly damaged or benefited. In their assessment of damages to any property or interest, they shall determine and appraise to the owner or owners thereof the value of the same, and the injury arising to them respectively, from the condemnation thereof, which shall be awarded to such owners respectively as damages after making due allowances therefrom for any benefit that may be by them derived from such improvement. In making their assessment for benefits to any property or interest, they shall assess to such property or interest respectively the same, after making due allowance for all damages that the same may sustain from such improvement. If the damage to any property or interest be greater than the benefits received, or the benefit be greater than the damage, in either case the commissioners shall strike a balance and carry the difference. forward to another column, so that the assessment shall show what amount is to be recived or paid on account thereof, and the difference [only] shall be paid to any person interested.

SEC. 11. If there shall be any building standing in whole or in part upon the land to be taken, the said commissioners shall add to their estimate of damages for the land, and also damages for the building or buildings or the part of any building or improvement necessary to be taken; if the property so taken be owned by any other person or

persons other than the owner of the land, the damages to or for the building shall be assessed separately, granting to the person owner or otherwise the right and authority at his option to remove such portion of said property so to be taken, the value of which shall be assessed by said commissioners, as well as all damages connected therewith and notice of such determination shall be given by said commissioners to the owner or person entitled thereto if known if a resident of the city, either personally or left at the last usual place of abode of the person upon whom service is to be made. In case the owner or person interested therein and entitled to notice as aforesaid is not kno wn to said commissioners, or is a non-resident of the said city of Stillwater, notice of the action of said commissioners to all persons interested in such property may be given by publication thereof in some weekly newspaper published at the city of Stillwater. And such owner or person interested in said property may at any time within twenty days after service of said notice or within ten days from the last publication of said notice, by written notice served upon the clerk of said city council, notify the said city council of his election to take said building or part of any such building at the appraisal so made by said commissioners, and in such case the amount of such appraisal shall be deducted by the said city council from the estimated damages so assessed by said commissioners, and the owner or person entitled thereto shall have such reasonable time for the removal of the building or buildings after the confirmation of the assessment as the said city council may allow. If the owner or person entitled thereto shall refuse to take the building at the appraisal so made by said commissioners, or fail to give notice of his election as aforesaid within the time above limited and prescribed, then no deduction shall be made from the estimated damages atoresaid, and the said city council shall after the confirmation of the said assessment by said city council which they may do, and after the money is collected or otherwise provided and in the hands of the treasurer, to be paid to the owner or person entitled thereto for the damages so appraised, the said city council may proceed to sell such building or buildings or part of such building at public auction for cash, giving at least ten days public notice of the sale by publication in some weekly newspaper published in said city, and cause such building to be then immediately removed, the proceeds of such sale shall be paid to the city treasurer to the credit of the current fund of said city.

SEC. 12. Said commissioners having assessed the benefits and damages of such contemplated improvement as hereinbefore pre scribed shall make and file with the city clerk a written report of their proceedings, embracing a schedule and assessment of the ben

efits and damages in each case, with a particular description of the land and premises proposed to be taken, or which will be directly damaged or benefited by such improvement, with the names of the owners thereof, it known to them, together with a statement of all the costs of such proceeding, and all the evidence by them taken. Upon filing the said report as aforesaid the said clerk shall cause the assessment aforesaid of damages, benefits and costs to be entered in a book to be kept for that purpose, and shall give five days' notice in some weekly paper published in said city, by notice inserted therein for at least two successive issues of such paper, that such assessment has been completed, and that at a meeting of the council to be held at a time specified the said council will meet for the purpose of hearing objections thereto, and that unless sufficient cause be shown the same will be then and there confirmed. All objections to such assessment shall be in writing and filed with the city clerk at least two days before the meeting of the council to be held to take action concerning said report. Provided, That nothing herein contained. shall preclude the said council from causing a new notice to be given of a meeting of the council for the hearing of the objections to the said assessment, and for confirming the report in manner as before provided for in case the previous notice should be found imperfect, or in case of a defect in the numbers of the council, or for any other reason which shall be satisfactory to said council. The council shall have power to adjourn such hearing from time to time, and shall have power to revise or correct said assessment, and to confirm the same by an order in its minutes, or set aside the same and make a new assessment by other commissioners by it appointed for that purpose after notice to at least five of the petitioners, of its intention to do so.

SEC. 13. Said assessment when confirmed, shall be final and conclusive upon all parties interested therein, except as hereinafter provided. When so confirmed, a copy thereof with the order of confirmation attested by the clerk and president of the council, shall be filed in the office of the said city clerk, who shall proceed to record the same in a book to be kept by him for that purpose, and the benefits so assessed shall be a lien upon the premises so assessed, from the confirmation of said report, and the same shall be assessed against the several tracts of land and the premises affected and inserted in the next annual tax roll, and the same shall be collected as other taxes against real estate, and when so collected shall be paid into the city treasury and be a part of the current fund of said city.

SEC. 14. The said commissioners before entering upon the discharge of their duties, shall severally take an oath that they are freeholders of said city and not interested in the premises proposed

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »