CHAPTER XIII. IMPROVEMENTS. 107, 108. Municipal Improvements-General-Local. 109. Power to Make or Aid. 110. Preliminary Proceedings. 112. Damages. 113. Special Assessments. 114. Enforcing Collection, MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENTS-GENERAL-LOCAL. 107. Municipal improvements include all those additions to or changes in the municipal property, made by the use of money and labor or skill, for the purpose and with the effect of enhancing taxable values or ameliorating conditions of life in the municipality. 108. They are necessarily public, but may be either local, as conferring special benefits upon a certain street, block, or section; or general, as bettering the entire municipality. The latter are generally paid for out of the municipal treasury, the former by local taxation. The chief object of citizens in effecting municipal organization is the amelioration of urban conditions. Physical change follows close upon the preservation of social order. An urban population requires special provisions for its comfort and well-being not necessary in rural districts. They are such as will preserve health, facilitate locomotion, and generally promote the convenience of the citizens. Each proprietor may care for his own property in his own way, but for the public comfort and the general convenience of the inhabitants provision must be made in accordance with plans which usually approximate urban ideals. To accomplish these purposes, improvements are necessary. Streets must be laid out, graded, curbed, guttered, paved, and lighted; sidewalks must be laid; municipal buildings must be erected; water must be furnished; sewers constructed; and in these times electric plants are coming into municipal use to furnish not only light, but power, for municipal purposes. Parks, also, are urban necessities, and boulevards contribute greatly not only to the beauty, but the health, of a city. And, since most cities are situate upon navigable waters, docks and wharves are necessities for their trade and commerce. Nor are public schoolhouses, halls, hospitals, and auditoriums to be omitted. The construction and care of all these things properly pertain to a modern municipality, and they are embraced within the comprehensive term "improvements," whether they are general in their nature, for the common use of all the citizens, or, by reason of being local, afford special benefits and advantages to citizens owning property or living in a particular locality.1 POWER TO MAKE OR AID. 109. The power to make general improvements is inherent in every municipality; but the power to make local improvements at the expense of the locality must be conferred expressly by the charter or by statute, or plainly implied. The general amelioration of urban conditions is the paramount object of municipal incorporation. To devise and 12 Beach, Pub. Corp. § 1170; Elliott, Mun. Corp. § 115; 2 Dill. Mun. Corp. § 761. See, also, Carthage v. Light Co., 97 Mo. App. 20, 70 S. W. 936; Riverside & A. Ry. Co. v. Riverside (C. C.) 118 Fed. 736; Taylor v. Patton, 160 Ind. 4, 66 N. E. 91; Scott v. La Porte (Ind. Sup.) 68 N. E. 278. A city has implied power to light its streets and public buildings and places, and may do so by the erection of plants. Fawcett v. Mt. Airy (N. C.) 45 S. E. 1029, 63 L. R. A. 870. 2 Authority given to a city to provide for the extension or construction of sewers carries with it implied power to make a general contract therefor. Jones v. Holzapfel, 11 Okl. 405, 68 Pac. 511; execute plans to attain this object is an essential function of the municipality. For the performance of this municipal function the city obviously possesses the requisite inherent power. It is not necessary, therefore, that the power to make any of these necessary municipal improvements for the general welfare shall be expressly conferred by charter; the city has itmust have it-to protect and promote the health, happiness, and well-being of its citizens.3 Extraordinary Improvements. But to exercise this power, to perform this function, in an extraordinary way, or to incur extraordinary expenses therefor, express authority is generally required. For instance, a city not only may, but must, take proper care of its streets and alleys; and this it may do, at an expense within the limit of its annual revenues appropriated to that purpose, without express charter authority. It may also, without express Elliott, Mun. Corp. § 76; Smith v. Stephan, 66 Md. 381, 7 Atl. 561; City of Galveston v. Loonie, 54 Tex. 517; Wells v. Atlanta, 43 Ga. 67. 3 Town of Greensboro v. Ehrenreich, 80 Ala. 579, 2 South. 725. 60 Am. Rep. 130; Cooley, Const, Lim. (6th Ed.) 231; Village of Carthage v. Frederick, 122 N. Y. 271, 25 N. E. 480, 10 L. R. A. 178. 19 Am. St. Rep. 490; Ould v. Richmond, 23 Grat. (Va.) 464, 14 Am. Rep. 139. But no express authority is necessary to be given to a city, it having implied authority, to require lot owners to lay sidewalks in front of their property, such improvement being considered a convenience pertinent to the lot, valuable as well to the lot as to the general public; and when a lot owner fails to make such improvement, when notified to do so, the city may do the work, or have it done, and collect the cost thereof from the property owner. City of Pittsburgh v. Daly, 5 Pa. Super. Ct. 528. 4 Town of Drummer v. Cox, 165 Ill. 648, 46 N. E. 716; HILL v. MEMPHIS, 134 U. S. 198, 10 Sup. Ct. 562, 33 L. Ed. 887; MERRILL V. MONTICELLO, 138 U. S. 673, 11 Sup. Ct. 441, 34 L. Ed. 1069; MAYOR v. RAY, 19 Wall. (U. S.) 468, 22 L. Ed. 164; Sturtevants v. Alton, 3 McLean, 393, Fed. Cas. No. 13,580. 5 In re Opening First Street, 66 Mich. 42, 33 N. W. 15; Milhau v. Sharp, 27 N. Y. 611, 84 Am. Dec. 314. In City of Detroit v. Railway (Mich.) 95 N. W. 736, it was held that a city had authority to bind 6 grant of power therefor, contract with a gas or electric company to provide light for the city; but if an extensive scheme of grading and paving at great expense is to be entered upon, requiring more than the annual revenues, and thereby incurring large municipal indebtedness, or if, at large expense and by municipal loan, the city wishes to construct its own gas or electric plant, it must have express legislative authority therefor." Local Improvements. Local improvements are special improvements in a particular locality, and for the special benefit thereof, and as such are chargeable to the property holders of the locality. Such improvements are not made in the exercise of the usual municipal functions, nor paid for out of the general municipal exchequer. They require an extraordinary exercise of municipal power, and lay unusual and exceptional burdens upon the property of the locality, and thus apparently violate the rule of equal taxation. For example, a certain street or avenue is converted into a boulevard, and the expense thereof charged to the abutting property owners. This is not an inherent power of a municipal corporation; the performance of such an extraordinary function requires express authority." itself on contract and maintain at its own expense the foundation required in its streets for the support of street car tracks. 6 CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS v. COKE CO., 66 Ind. 396; Gregory v. Bridgeport, 41 Conn. 76, 19 Am. Rep. 458; Pullman v. Mayor, 54 Barb. (N. Y.) 169. 7 Scott v. Davenport, 34 Iowa, 208; Hewitt v. School Dist., 94 Ill. 528; Hill v. Memphis, 134 U. S. 198, 10 Sup. Ct. 562, 33 L. Ed. 887; Elliott, Mun. Corp. § 113. A contract for a street improvement, made before the adoption of a sufficient ordinance therefor, is invalid. Paxton v. Bogardus, 201 Ill. 628, 66 N. E. 853. 8 Cooley, Tax'n, p. 606; Burrough, Tax'n, p. 460. 9 Zalesky v. Cedar Rapids, 118 Iowa, 714, 92 N. W. 657; Town of Macon v. Patty, 57 Miss. 378, 34 Am. Rep. 451; Lott v. Ross, 38 Ala. 156; Winston v. Taylor, 99 N. C. 210, 6 S. E. 114; City of Savannah v. Hartridge, 8 Ga. 23; Green v. Ward, 82 Va. 324. An PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS. 110. It is essential to the validity of any scheme of improvement that all the substantial requirements of the charter or statute authorizing the same shall be strictly observed and complied with. Municipal repairs or slight improvements made within the limits of ordinary revenues are not generally considered to be included within the meaning of the term "improvements." 10 This word is usually employed to describe such local or thorough changes in physical conditions as involve extraordinary expenditure or unusual taxation,11 and will be so used in this chapter. The authority of the municipality to impose these special or extraordinary burdens may be conferred upon it by the charter, by general law, or by special legislation. It is rarely an absolute power, but is usually conditioned upon the assent of those to be burdened by the proposed improvement.1 If it is general, the assent is required to be manifested by a popular election showing the favor of a bare majority or two-thirds or three-fourths of the entire vote cast, or of all entitled to vote in the election.13 If it is a local improvement, the condition precedent may be either a petition for the improvement, generally required to be signed by a majority of all freeholders to be affected thereby; 14 or a judicial declaration 12 ordinance is the very foundation of the improvement, when it is to be paid for by a special tax, and no special tax can be levied for improvements already made. City of Alton v. Job, 103 Ill. App. 378. 10 Philadelphia v. Dibeler, 147 Pa. 261, 23 Atl. 567; In re Fulton Street, 29 How. Prac. (N. Y.) 429. 11 2 Beach, Pub. Corp. c. 27; Elliott, Mun. Corp. §§ 113-117. 12 2 Smith, Mun. Corp. § 1131. 13 Marion Water Co. v. Marion (Iowa) 96 N. W. 883. 14 Jones v. South Omaha (Neb.) 94 N. W. 957. In Orr v. Omaha (Neb.) 90 N. W. 301, it was held that where the act incorporating metropolitan cities authorized any such city to pave any street or alley within its limits, either with or without a petition of the property ING.CORP.-21 |