(a) In addition to any authority which is now or may hereafter be granted by general law to the town for making street improvements, the town council is hereby authorized to make street im provements and to assess the cost thereof against abutting property owners in accordance with the provisions of this section.
(b) The town council may order street improvements and assess the cost thereof against the abutting property owners, exclusive of the costs incurred at street intersections, according to one or more of the assessment bases set forth in Article 10 of Chapter 160A of theNorth Carolina General Statutes without the necessity of a petition, upon the finding by the board as a fact:
(1) that the street improvement project does not exceed 1,200 linear feet, and
(2) that such street or part thereof is unsafe for vehicular traffic, and it is in the public interest to make such improvement, or
(3) that it is in the public interest to connect two streets, or portions of a street already improved, or
(4) that it is in the public interest to widen a street, or part thereof, which is already improved, provided, that assessments for widening any street or portion of street without a petition shall be limited to the cost of widening and otherwise improving such street in accordance with the street classification and improvement standards established by the town's thoroughfare or major street plan for the particular street or part thereof to be widened and improved under the authority granted by this article:
(c) For the purposes of this section the term "street improvement" shall refer to the initial im provement of an unimproved, unpaved street, including initial acquisition of rights-of-way, grading, surfacing, and the construction of curb and gutter and street drainage facilities. For the purposes of this section, the term "sidewalk improvement" shall refer to the initial acquisition of rights-of-way, laying out, grading and surfacing of new sidewalks. The provisions of this section are not intended to refer to those activities that are normally included under the city's [town's] facing and repairs, curb and gutter and sidewalk maintenance and repairs.
(d) rn addition to any authority which is now or may hereafter be granted by general law to the town for making sidewalk improvements, the town council is hereby authorized without the necessity of a petition, to make or to order to be made sidewalk improvements or repairs according to standards and specifications of the town, and to assess the total cost thereof against abutting property owners, according to one or more of the assessment bases set forth in Article 10 of Chapter 160A of the North Carolina General Statutes; provided, however, that regardless of the assessment basis or bases employed, the board of commissioners [town council] may order the cost of sidewalk improvements made only on one side of a street to be assessed against property owners abutting both sides of such street.
(e) In ordering street and sidewalk improvements without a petition and assessing the cost thereof under authority of this article, the board of commissioners [town council] shall comply with the procedure provided by Article 10 of Chapter 160A of the General Statutes, except those provisions relating to the petition of property owners and the sufficiency thereof.
(f) The effect of the act of levying assessments under the authority of this article shall for all purposes be the same as if the assessments were levied under authority of Article 110 of Chapter 160A of the General Statutes.