If at any time the Board of Commissioners of the Town of Zebulon should need to purchase any land within or without the Town limits, deemed necessary for a public use of the city, or for other purposes authorized by this Charter or other applicable law, and cannot agree with the owner of such land as to the compensation to be paid therefor, then the Board of Commissioners of the Town of Zebulon is hereby specifically authorized and empowered to, in the name of the Town, condemn either the fee or an easement in any such land, whether the land be owned by any private person, firm or corporation, or whether it be owned by any railroad company, power company, telephone company, gas company or other quasi-public corporation, or whether the land be devoted to private or public use. The proceedings utilized by the Board of Commissioners for such condemnation and determination of the compensation to be paid may be any of the alternative proceedings provided municipalities by the general laws of the State of North Carolina or those prescribed by Article 9 of Chapter 136 of the North Carolina General Statutes; provided that the Town of Zebulon shall possess the power of eminent domain for the purpose of acquiring the fee or any lesser interest in properties already devoted to the public use and owned by a public service corporation, including public utilities as defined in Chapter 62 of the General Statutes, and electric and telephone membership corporations, only if such acquisition will not prevent or unreasonably impair the continued devotion to the public use of such properties, and their operation by such public service corporation.
(Session Laws of 1973, Chapter 386) (Ord. 2004-45, passed 4-4-2004)