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Property within the corporate limits of the City may be appropriated for any public or Municipal purpose, and subject to the limitations thereon imposed by the Constitution of the State, such appropriation shall be made in the manner herein provided. By such appropriation the City may acquire a fee simple title or any less estate, easement or use. Appropriation of property located outside the corporate limits of the City shall be made according to the requirements of, and in the manner provided by the general law.
When it is deemed necessary to appropriate property the Council shall adopt a resolution declaring such intent, defining the purpose of the appropriation, setting forth a pertinent description of the property, and the estate or interest therein desired to be appropriated.
Immediately upon the adoption of such a resolution, for which but one reading shall be necessary, the Clerk of the Council shall cause written notice thereof to be given to the owner, person in possession thereof, or having an interest of record in, every piece of land sought to be appropriated, or to his authorized agent, and such notice shall be served by a person designated for the purpose, and return made in the manner provided by law for the service and return of summons in civil actions. If such owner, person, or agent, cannot be found, notice shall be given by publication once a week for three consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the City, and the Council may thereafter pass an ordinance directing such appropriation to proceed.
Upon the passage of such ordinance the Director of Law shall make application to a court of competent jurisdiction or to a judge thereof in vacation, which application shall describe as correctly as possible the land or other property to be appropriated, the interest or estate therein to be taken, the object for which the land is desired, and the name of the owner or each lot or parcel thereof, and all the subsequent proceedings with regard thereto shall be in the manner provided by general law for the appropriation of property by municipal corporations in this State.
FRANCHISES
The Council may, by ordinance, grant permission to any individual, company or corporation to construct and operate a public utility in the streets and public grounds of the City but not for a period exceeding twenty years. It may prescribe in the ordinance the kind and quality of service or the product to be furnished, the rate or rates to be charged therefor, and any terms and conditions conducive to the public interest; and also the manner in which the streets and public grounds shall be used and occupied. And no franchise shall be considered an emergency measure and shall be subject to referendum as hereinbefore provided.
The Council may, by ordinance, renew any grant for the construction or operation of any utility, at its expiration, upon such terms as may be conducive to the public interest. All such grants and renewals thereof shall reserve to the City the right to purchase all the property of the utility in the streets and highways and elsewhere used in, or useful for, the operation of the utility, at a price either fixed in the ordinance, or to be fixed in the manner provided by the ordinance making the grant or the renewal of the grant. Nothing in such ordinance shall prevent the City from acquiring the property of any such utility by condemnation proceedings or in any other lawful mode; but all such methods of acquisition shall be alternative to the power of purchase, reserved in the grant or renewal as hereinbefore provided.
No ordinance making such grant or renewal shall be valid unless it shall expressly provide therein that the price to be paid by the City for the property that may be required by it from such utility, by purchase, condemnation or otherwise, shall exclude all value of such grant or renewal.
Upon the acquisition by the City of the property of any utility by purchase, condemnation or otherwise, all grants or renewals shall at once terminate.
The Council may, by ordinance, grant to any individual, company or corporation operating a public utility, the right to extend the appliances and service of such utility. All such extensions shall become a part of the aggregate property of the utility and shall be subject to all the obligations and reserved rights in favor of the City applicable to the property of the utility by virtue of the ordinance providing for its construction and operation. The right to use and maintain any such extension shall expire with the original grant of the utility to which the extension was made or any renewal thereof.
No consent of the owner of property abutting on any highway or public ground shall be required by the Council as a condition of its authority to authorize the construction, extension, maintenance, or operation of any public utility by original grant or renewal, unless such public utility is of such a character that its construction or operation is an additional burden upon the rights of the property owners in such highways or public grounds.
The Council shall at all times control the distribution of space in, over, under or across all streets or public grounds occupied by public utility fixtures. All rights granted for the construction and operation of public utilities shall be subject to the continuing right of Council to require such reconstruction, re-location, change or discontinuance of the appliances used by the utility in the streets, alleys, avenues, and highways, of the City, as shall in the opinion of the Council be necessary in the public interest.
GENERAL PROVISIONS
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