The Council shall have power to provide for the construction, repair and maintenance, by contract, or directly by the employment of labor, of all things in the nature of local improvements, and to provide for the payment of any part of the cost of any such improvement by levying and collecting special assessments upon abutting, adjacent and contiguous property, or other specially benefited property, or upon the property within the boundaries of a district in which the improvement is located. The amount assessed against the property specially benefited by such local improvement shall not exceed the amount of benefits to such property.
However, when a petition subscribed by the owners of sixty percent of the front footage of property abutting upon the improvement, or by the owners of seventy-five percent of the area to be assessed for such improvement, requesting such improvement, is regularly presented to Council, the total cost of such improvement, including the cost of intersections, regardless of the limitations of Sections 11.15 and 11.16 of this Charter, and without reference to the value of the lands of those who subscribe to such petitions, may be assessed and collected in equal annual installments, by any one of the methods prescribed by Section 11.02 of this Charter. When the lot or land of one who did not subscribe to the petition is assessed, such assessment shall not exceed the limitation of Section 11.15 of this Charter.