That among the powers hereby conferred upon the City of Oxford is the right to eminent domain, and when any land or right-of-way shall be required by said city for the purpose of widening or straightening streets, opening new streets, laying and constructing water, gas, or sewer pipe lines, erecting buildings, laying out additional or new cemeteries, or for any other purposes allowed by its charter or the North Carolina General Statutes and amendments thereto, applying to municipalities, and for want of agreement as to the value thereof, or any other cause, the same cannot be purchased from the owner or owners, and it shall become necessary to condemn the same, the necessity for such condemnation shall be conclusively evidenced by a resolution duly passed by the Board of Commissioners of said city at any regular or special meetings. The said Board of Commissioners shall file its petition before the Clerk of the Superior Court of Granville County, stating the purpose for which said land or right-of-way is desired, with description of the same, the names of the owner or owners, and of all persons having an interest in said lands, and praying the appointment of appraisers. The clerk of said court, after at least ten-days' notice to the owner or owners and all persons having an interest in said lands, shall thereupon appoint three disinterested freeholders of the City of Oxford to value said land or right-of-way, and the said three free-holders, after being duly sworn, shall go upon the premises and value the same, taking into consideration the loss or damage to the owner in consequence of the land or right-of-way being surrendered, also any benefit or advantage such owner may receive from the opening of such street or other improvement, and shall state the amount of each, and the excess of loss or damage over and above the advantages, shall form the measure of valuation of said land or right-of-way; and said freeholders or a majority of them shall file their report in the office of the clerk of said court within ten days from the date of their appointment; provided, that in case service of notice of process cannot be had upon any person or persons interested in said lands, then service upon such persons may be had by publication in the same way as is now provided by law for service of process by publication in special proceedings or other actions. If, however, the owner of said land or right-of-way, or the said Board of Commissioners, be dissatisfied with the valuation thus made, then either party may have an appeal to the next term of Granville County Superior Court; but if the valuation so made be paid to the owner, or lodged in the hands of the Clerk of the Superior Court, the land so valued shall vest in the city so long as it may be used for the purpose of the same, and the appeal shall not hinder or delay said Board of Commissioners in opening such street or erecting such improvement; provided, that in case of the discontinuance of the use of the land and its reversion to the owner, the city shall have the right to remove any improvement under its authority erected.
(Session Laws 1963, Ch. 971, Art. VII, § 1)
Statutory reference:
Municipal powers of eminent domain, proceedings, see
G.S. § 160A-240.1