The procedure for making, altering, vacating, or abandoning a public improvement shall be governed by general ordinance or, to the extent not so governed, by the applicable general laws of the state. Action on any proposed public improvement, except a sidewalk or except an improvement unanimously declared by the council to be needed at once because of an emergency, shall be suspended for six (6) months upon a remonstrance thereto by the owners of one-third of the land to be specially assessed, therefore. In this section “owner” shall mean the record holder of legal title or, where land is being purchased under a land sale contract recorded or verified to the recorder in writing by the record holder of legal title to the land, the purchaser shall be deemed the “owner”.