The Common Council shall be Commissioners of Highways in and for said city and shall have all of the powers and discharge all of the duties of Commissioners of Highways in towns in this state, except as otherwise provided by this Act. The City of Rensselaer is hereby declared a separate highway district.
[Amended by L. 1943, c. 710; L.L. No. 3-1990]
It shall be lawful for the Common Council to order and direct the reducing, excavating, filling, leveling, pitching, grading, paving, macadamizing or covering with concrete, asphalt, brick, stone, wood, gravel, sand or other material any of the streets, sidewalks, roads, avenues, parks, open courts, squares, places, alleys or lanes in said city and the making or repairing of any bridges, viaducts, sewers, gutters, sidewalks, curbings, culverts or arches in said city and the improving of channels enclosing, covering, discontinuing and altering the course of all creeks, streams and ponds in said city and the laying or repairing of water mains and of service and house-connection pipes from the sewer and water mains in said city. But no paving, repairing with macadam or asphalt shall be done in any street, highway or public place until the sewer and water mains and sewers have been laid therein or provide therefor and service and house-connection pipes and the same laid in front of each separate lot or piece of property to a point within the sidewalk or curbline.
Except as by this Act otherwise provided, the entire expense of the improvements above specified will be assessed and apportioned as herein provided.
The expense of laying and repairing service and house-connection pipes, water mains and sewers shall be apportioned and assessed against the owner or owners of the property abutting on such improvement, except that when such sewer and water mains are not owned by the city, then the expense of laying and repairing such service and house-connection pipes from such sewer and water mains shall be apportioned and assessed against the owner or owners of such sewer and water mains, as the case may be.
The expense of repairing pavements and the expense of repairing and ordinary work of all streets shall be paid by the city out of the Street Fund.
The expense of laying new pavements in said city with granite, asphalt, brick, macadam or other material, including all grading and preparation of street therefor and the construction of bridges, arches, viaducts, gutters, culverts and sewers and the cost of acquiring real estate, rights and easements for such bridges, arches, viaducts, gutters, culverts and sewers shall be made by general assessment of all the taxable property and all persons in said city; provided, however, that property which has already been separately or specifically assessed for granite, block or asphalt pavement laid prior to April 5, 1901, shall be assessed in such general assessment for any new pavements only to the amount which would properly be assessed upon such property for such new pavements after deducting therefrom the amount actually paid upon such assessment for such granite block or asphalt pavements laid prior to April 5, 1901, and that property which is already been separately or specifically assessed for sewer or sewers constructed prior to December 31, 1902, shall be assessed in such general assessment for new sewers only to the amount which would properly be assessed upon such property for such new sewers after deducting therefrom the amount actually paid upon such assessment for such sewer or sewers constructed prior to December 31, 1902.
When the grade of a street has once been established by the city and such grade recorded and conformed to in the making of local improvements, any change in the grade therefor, insofar as any expense is incurred therein and to that extent only, must be made at the expense of the city at large.
Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to prevent the city from financing pursuant to the Local Finance Law, in whole or in part, any of the expenditures enumerated in this section.
Any expenditures for local improvements in said city, except as to curbing and sidewalks, the expense of which is to be defrayed wholly or partly by local assessment, shall not be incurred unless the Common Council shall by resolution declare its intention to make such local improvement.
After the Common Council shall declare its intention to make such local improvement, except as to curbing and sidewalks, before ordering the same done, the Common Council shall order a district of assessment which shall contain all of the property which, in the judgment of the Common Council, is likely to be benefited by the local improvement and may at any time enlarge such district and cause notices to be published and served upon all persons within such enlargement.
The Common Council may order a sewer for the drainage of streets, cellars, buildings, lots, pools, vaults and other proper sewerage purposes to be constructed in any street and, with the consent of the owners, in, upon or across any real property outside of a street. If the Common Council shall declare its intention to construct any sewer in, upon or across the real property outside the streets of said city and the owners of such real property shall not consent thereto and the city is unable to agree with the owners of such real property upon the compensation to be made therefor, the Common Council, in the name and behalf of the city, may acquire the title, easement and right in and to such real property for such sewer by condemnation, in pursuance of the provisions of the Condemnation Law, Chapter 23 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The cost and expense of such condemnation proceedings, together with the compensation determined, shall be paid to the owner or owners of such real property for such title, easement and right so acquired.
If a district of assessment has been established, then upon the passage of a resolution by the Common Council declaring its intention to make local improvement, the expense of which is payable wholly or partly by local assessment, the City Clerk shall prepare and sign a written notice of the proposed improvement, specifying therein the time which any person interested may file his objections thereto with the City Clerk, which shall not expire before the next regular meeting of the Common Council, and, in case no objection is so filed within the time so specified, all persons interested will be deemed to have acquiesced in the proposed improvement. Such notice shall either be published at least once in the official newspaper of the city at least 10 days before the expiration of the time for objections thereto or shall be served upon each such owner of property within the district of assessment fixed for such improvement as follows: by delivering to him personally a copy thereof or by leaving a copy thereof at his residence in said city with some member of his family or some person of suitable age or discretion or, if he resides elsewhere, by service as above described upon his agent or other person having the property in charge or by depositing in the post office, properly enclosed and postage prepaid thereon, directed to such owner at his last known place of residence. If there be two or more owners of any one piece of property, service on any one of them shall be sufficient notice to the owners of such piece of property. Affidavits of service and publication of such notice may be filed or recorded, or both, in the office of the City Clerk, and the affidavits or record thereof or a certified copy of either shall in all courts and places, actions or proceedings be prima facie evidence of the facts stated therein.
Objections to such improvements must be made in writing and filed with the City Clerk within the time specified in such notice, and the Common Council may at any regular meeting within two months after the expiration of such 10 days, subject to the Mayor's veto as in other cases, order the improvement to be made.
[Amended by L.L. No. 3-1990]
Upon the certificate of the Commissioner of Public Works that the work of such local improvement, the expense of which is to be defrayed wholly or partly by local assessment, has been completed, the Common Council shall direct the cost thereof be assessed by the City Assessor, and it shall be the duty of the City Assessor to immediately assess the cost of such local improvement upon the property lying within the district of assessment declared for such improvement in an equitable manner in as near as may be in proportion to the benefits which each owner of such property may be deemed to derive therefrom without reference to the erections or improvements thereon, except as herein otherwise provided; the cost of any local improvement shall be deemed to include the entire expense thereof, including the inspection, except the engineering and publishing and serving of notices.
[Amended by L.L. No. 3-1990]
The City Assessor shall make out an assessment roll and a duplicate thereof, both of which shall be deemed originals, and set the amount of tax assessed in the last column of the roll and file the same in the office of the City Clerk and thereupon give public notice in the official newspaper for one week and by posting a copy of such notice in four public places in said city that such assessment rolls have been prepared and will remain at the office of the City Clerk for a term of 15 days from the date of such notice, during which time any person interested may examine said roll, and, at the expiration of said 15 days, on the day and hour and at the place to be specified in said notice, the City Assessor shall attend and hear any objections to said assessment and shall decide upon the same and shall, if it need be, alter and correct said assessment roll and, when completed, sign the same and file them with the City Clerk.
[Amended by L.L. No. 3-1990]
Any party thinking himself aggrieved may file with the Clerk a written appeal therefrom briefly stating the grounds of such appeal, and the Common Council shall thereupon proceed to hear and determine such appeal or appeals, upon view of the property assessed or upon the evidence or both and may affirm or reverse the assessment. In case of affirmance, it shall be final and conclusive, and the proceedings thereafter to collect such assessment shall remain the same as if no appeal had been taken. Said assessment roll shall be signed by the Mayor and the President of the Common Council. In case of reversal, the Common Council shall appoint three disinterested electors of the city as commissioners, who shall proceed in like manner upon view of the property assessed or upon evidence or both and for such purposes be invested with the same powers as the Assessor to make a new assessment. They shall make their tax rolls in the same manner and sign the same and file them with the City Clerk, and the same shall be final and conclusive on all parties. Such commissioners shall receive $25 per day for their services, to be paid by the city, unless the assessments of the appellants as determined by such commissioners shall be less favorable to them than the assessment appealed from, in which case the fees of said commissioners shall be paid by the appellants added to the amount of their taxes respectively by the commissioners in proportion to the amount thereof.
In case any assessment or installment thereof has become due and the whole or any part thereof remains unpaid, it shall be the duty of the Assessor to insert the same when reported, as provided in this Act, by the City Treasurer in the annual tax roll for the current year, against the respective lots or parcels of land on which the assessments were originally levied and, in addition to such assessment or assessments, 6% per annum to the time when due to the date of the annual city tax sale following the insertion. Up to the date of the annual city tax sale following the insertion. Up to the date of such sale, the Treasurer, in his discretion, shall receive the amount of any assessment or installment inserted or to be inserted in the annual tax roll for the current year with the aforesaid addition of 6% per annum.
[Amended by L.L. No. 3-1990]
If damages arise in acquiring land for making public improvement and such improvement is payable by the city at large, the amount of such damages shall be included in the cost of making such improvement and payment thereof made or provided for in accordance with this Act. After they have been ascertained and determined, if they arise out of the making of local improvement, said Common Council shall declare a district of assessment therefor and shall direct such part of the amount of such damages and the expenses to be assessed by the city and such part locally as they shall deem just. The Common Council shall then direct the Assessor to assess the amount of award for damages and the expenses so directed to be borne by the property benefited locally, specifying the aggregate amount of the same upon the property within such district of assessment. The Assessor shall proceed to assess such amount upon the property benefited by such improvement in a just and equitable manner and nearly as may be in proportion to the benefits, if any, received. Such assessment shall be made in the same manner as other local assessments. When the assessment roll shall be filed, the assessment may be appealed from in the same manner, and the Common Council shall possess the same powers in reference thereto and proceed in the same manner as on appeals from other assessments.
[Amended by L.L. No. 3-1990]
The Common Council may, by 2/3 vote of all the members elected thereto, provide in any ordinance or resolution for a street or other improvement, the expense of which may be imposed and assessed upon the property benefited thereby, as provided by law, that the assessment shall be payable in any number not less than five and not more than 15 annual installments, together with interest thereon, from and after the date of the confirmation of such assessment at the rate of 9% per annum upon the whole amount of the entire assessment remaining to be paid, shall be due and payable on the first day of June following the confirmation of such assessment until the whole of such assessment and the interest thereon shall be paid; the owner or occupant of any piece of property so assessed may at any time pay to the Treasurer the entire assessment upon his or such property, with the interest at the rate aforesaid, upon the time of such assessment, and thereupon such property shall be discharged from lien of such assessments.
[Amended by L.L. No. 3-1990]
If no appeal is taken from the assessment roll filed with the City Clerk or if an appeal is taken therefrom and such assessment be affirmed, the Common Council shall cause the proper warrant to be attached to one of the assessment rolls and to the other a copy of such warrant and the Treasurer's receipt for such special assessment roll, with a warrant to the City Treasurer, and secure his signature and the receipt thereof in the duplicate roll filed in his office. If an appeal is taken from such assessment and the same is reversed, the Common Council shall cause the proper warrant to be attached to one of the assessment rolls filed by such commissioners and to the other a copy of such warrant. The City Clerk shall deliver such assessment roll and warrant to the City Treasurer and secure his signature to the receipts therefor in the duplicate roll filed in his office. Such warrant shall be signed by the Mayor and the President of the Common Council. Whenever the assessment roll and the warrant for its collection for any local improvement shall be left with the City Treasurer, he shall receive the taxes thereon for the same time and with the same fees as directed herein for the collection of city taxes and shall give notice to that effect immediately upon receipt of such assessment roll by publication thereof in the official paper of the city. If any such taxes or any installments thereof remain unpaid at the expiration of 60 days from the time of the delivery of such assessment roll to the Treasurer, said Treasurer shall report the same to the Assessor on or before July 1 of each year for insertion in the city tax roll as provided by this Act.
Whenever an infant or other incompetent person shall be interested in real estate affected by any local improvement, the County Court of Rensselaer County or the Supreme Court shall have power to appoint a guardian in the nature of a guardian ad litem to protect the interests of such infant or such incompetent person, and such guardian shall be entitled to receive for his services such compensation as the court making the appointment may direct. The compensation so paid shall be included in the amount of the assessment made against the property of such infant.
[Amended by L.L. No. 3-1990]
In all cases of assessment for improvement, the Assessor shall include in the apportionment all the expenses connected with or which were incident to the making of the improvement and assessment. Whenever the amount of apportionment shall exceed the actual cost of the improvement, including all expenses connected therewith and incidental thereto, the City Treasurer shall certify the amount of the surplus to the Assessor, and they shall thereupon declare a rebate, and the excess shall be refunded pro rata to the persons who paid their assessments. If the amount assessed for any improvement shall be insufficient to cover the cost of the improvement, including all expenses connected therewith and incidental thereto, the City Treasurer shall certify the amount of the deficiency to the Common Council and Assessor; and the Common Council and the Assessor shall forthwith cause to be levied and assessed the amount of such deficiency pro rata upon the property included within the original assessment, and the same shall be assessed and levied and collected in like manner as other assessments of like character.
No action or proceeding to set aside, vacate, cancel or annual any assessment or tax for local improvement shall be maintained, except for total want of jurisdiction to levy and assess the same on the part of the Common Council, officers, board or commission authorized by law to make such levy or assessment or to order the improvement on account of which the levy or assessment was made. No action or proceeding shall be maintained to modify or reduce any such assessment or tax, except for fraud or substantial error, by reason of which the amount of such tax or assessment is in excess of the amount which should have been locally levied or assessed.
No action or proceeding shall be maintained to set aside, vacate, cancel, annual, review, reduce or otherwise question, test or affect the legality or validity of any assessment or tax for local improvement except in the form and manner and by proceedings herein provided. If in the proceedings relative to an assessment or tax entire absence of jurisdiction on the part of the Common Council, officers, board or commission authorized by law to levy or assess the same or to order the improvement on account of which the assessment was made or the tax imposed is alleged to have existed or in case of fraud or substantial error, other than errors in the direction specified in the preceding section by reason of which substantial damages have been sustained, as alleged or to have existed or to have been committed, any party aggrieved thereby who shall have filed objections thereto within the time and the manner specified by law thereto may apply to the Supreme Court at a special term thereof held within the judicial district in which the city is situated for an order affecting or modifying such assessment as to the lands in which he is interested upon the grounds in such objections specified and no other and upon due notice of such application to the Corporation Counsel. Such application shall be made within 20 days after the confirmation of the assessment. Thereupon such court may proceed to hear the proofs and the allegations of the parties and determine the same or may appoint a referee to take the proofs and report thereon or hear, try and determine the same. If it shall be determined in such proceeding that the Common Council, officers, board or commission had no jurisdiction to make and levy the assessment complained of or to order the improvement, the court may order such assessment or tax vacated. If it shall be determined therein that any such fraud or substantial error has been committed and that the party appearing for such relief has suffered substantial damages by reason thereof, the court may order that the assessment or tax be modified as to such party and, as so modified, that it be confirmed. A like application may be made to secure a modification or reduction of any such assessment or tax on account of fraud or such substantial error occurring in the performance of the work or improvement on account of which such assessment or tax is made or levied, and it shall be determined in like manner. If in any such proceeding it shall be determined that such fraud or substantial error has been committed by reason of which any such assessment or tax upon the lands of any such aggrieved party has been unlawfully increased, the court may order that such assessment or tax be modified by deducting therefrom said amount, as in the same proportion such assessment or tax as the whole amount of such unlawful increase is to the whole amount of assessment or tax for the improvement. An order so made in such proceeding shall be entered in the County Clerk's office of Rensselaer County and shall have the same force and effect as a judgment. The court may, during the pendency of any such proceeding, stay the collection of any assessment or tax involved therein as against the parties thereto. The costs and disbursements of any such proceeding may be allowed in the discretion of the court as in an action. No appeal shall be allowed or taken from an order made in any such proceeding, but determination so made therein shall be final and conclusive upon all parties thereto. No assessment or tax shall be modified otherwise than to reduce it to the extent that the same may be shown by the party complaining thereof to have in fact increased in dollars and cents by reason of such fraud or substantial error. In no event shall that proportion of any such assessment which is equivalent to the fair value or fair cost of the improvement be disturbed for any cause. No money paid on account of any assessment or tax shall be recovered for any cause except the amount of the excess of such assessment or tax over and above the fair value and cost of the improvement. In case of the failure of any assessment or tax for any cause, the City Treasurer shall certify such fact to the Common Council, and it shall be its duty to forthwith cause the same to be relevied or reassessed in a proper manner.
Two or more persons may unite in commencing and prosecuting the proceedings to vacate or modify an assessment; and when two or more persons have commenced separate proceedings to vacate or modify an assessment for the same improvement, the court before whom the same was commenced or pending or the judge thereof at such term or chambers may, upon an order and upon due application and notice, consolidate such separate proceedings into one proceeding.
Errors and irregularities in a proceeding contemplated by this Act, if shown to injuriously affect a party or parties thereto, may be corrected on the review thereof, on the application of the party injured, or his damages occasioned thereby recovered in an action against the city, subject to the regulations of this Act.
Nothing herein contained shall affect any assessment upon any lands owned by the state nor be deemed to repeal or modify any of the provisions of § 21 of the Public Lands Law.
The Common Council shall have the power to cause the streets, lanes, alleys, highways and public ground and places in the city to be cleaned from time to time, and the expense thereof shall be paid by the city out of the Street Fund.
It shall be the primary duty of every owner of every lot or piece of land to keep the sidewalks and curb adjoining his lot or piece of land, from his property line to the curbline and, if no curbline, then the space of the street within 12 feet of his property line, at all times free and clear of all obstructions and in a safe and passable condition and keep the same clean and free from snow and ice. It shall be the duty of such owner to remove new ice and freshly fallen snow from such curb and sidewalks before 12:00 noon of each day and keep the same so cleaned and removed at all times. In default thereof, such owners shall be subject to such fine or penalty therefor as may be prescribed by the Common Council. Also, the Commissioner of Public Works shall have power to remove such obstructions and also to place said sidewalks and curbs in safe and passable condition and to remove all snow and ice which the owner has neglected to remove before said hour of 12:00 noon or any other obstructions upon the sidewalk and curb, and no ordinance or resolution for the same need be passed or notice given, and the expenses therefor shall be assessed and collected in the same manner as the expense of constructing and repairing sidewalks, and such owners shall be liable and responsible to the City of Rensselaer for all loss or damage which it may sustain or incur, directly or indirectly, or, in consequence of the owner of such lot, piece or parcel of land failing to do so, and perform the duties and obligations hereby imposed upon him.
[Amended by L.L. No. 3-1990]
Whenever the Common Council shall deem it necessary for any sidewalk or curbstone and the whole or any part of such sidewalk or curbstone, from curbline to property line, to be constructed, made, flagged, concreted, bricked, curbed, relaid or reset by the owners of land adjoining such sidewalk or curb, it shall have power to require any or either of said improvements, acts or things to be made or done; it shall prescribe by resolution or ordinance that the same be done at such times and in such manner and of such materials as it may direct, and such improvements shall conform to the grade established or to be established before such improvements are made. The Common Council shall cause to be served at least 10 days before the expiration of time so specified for such work to be done upon the owners or occupants of the land adjoining such sidewalk or curbstone so to be improved as aforesaid a copy of such resolution and ordinance, with a notice that if the same is not done within a specified time by the owner of the adjoining land, it will be done by said Common Council at the expense of such owner. Such notice shall be served upon such owner by delivering a copy thereof to him personally or by leaving the same, in his absence, with some member of his family of suitable age and discretion or some person of suitable age or discretion residing with him, if he be a resident of the city, or otherwise on his agent or other person having charge of the property or by depositing the same in the post office, properly enclosed and postage prepaid thereon and directed to said owner at his last known place of residence; in case such owner or his place of residence is unknown, then upon the occupant or occupants of said premises; and in case such owner or his place of residence is unknown and there be no agent or occupant to the knowledge of the Common Council, such service may be made by affixing a copy of such ordinance or resolution and notice upon a conspicuous part of the premises. The Common Council shall at least 10 days before the expiration of the time specified for said work to be done cause a copy of such resolution or ordinance to be published at least once in the official paper of the city. If there be two or more owners or two or more occupants of one piece of property, service upon one of them will be sufficient. Affidavits of the publication and service of such resolution or ordinance may be filed or recorded or both in the office of the Clerk of said city, and affidavits or records thereof or a certified copy of either shall, in all courts and places, actions and proceedings, be prima facie evidence of the facts stated therein. In case any such improvement, act or thing so required shall not be made, done or completed within the time specified, the Common Council shall have power to make, do or complete the same and, having done so, shall, without giving any other or further notice, upon affidavits of the Commissioner of Public Works, as the case may be, having the work in charge, showing the actual expense thereof, which affidavit shall be made and filed with the said City Clerk, proceed to make a special assessment roll and duplicate thereof, both of which are deemed originals, against the delinquent owners and upon such adjoining land owned by them, assessing each parcel or lot of land and the expense of sidewalk and curbstone immediately adjoining it and filing the same, when completed, in the office of the City Clerk, and such special assessment roll, from the time of filing the same in the office of said City Clerk, shall be final and conclusive upon all persons interested in such real estate or affected thereby, and the amount therein assessed shall be a lien upon the lands and premises in said assessment roll and adjoining which said improvements have been made. Whenever such special assessment roll and a warrant for the collection of the taxes therein assessed shall be left with the City Treasurer, he shall proceed to collect the same with the same fees thereon and in the same manner as provided by this Act for the collection of the local assessments. Whenever the grade of any sidewalk has been established by said city and recorded and been conformed to by the owner of said property, any change of grade thereof made by the city, insofar as any expense is incurred therein and to that extent only, must be borne by the city at large.
The majority of the owners of property abutting on a street may petition the Common Council to change the name of said street to a name specified in such petition, and the Common Council may then by ordinance or resolution change the name of said street to the name specified in such petition. The name of a street shall not be changed, except as provided by this section.
The Common Council shall have full power and authority to designate the street numbers of houses, lots and premises in the city and change, alter and renumber the same as it may deem proper from time to time.
[Amended by L.L. No. 3-1990]
Whenever the Common Council shall finally determine to pave or repave any street or portion of a street in which gas mains are not at said time laid, the Common Council may cause to be served written, typewritten or printed notice of its intention to pave or repave said street or portion thereof upon said gas company or owner of gas mains, having the same laid in any of the streets of said city, contiguous to the street so intended to be improved, and notify said gas company or owner of gas mains as aforesaid to extend its mains throughout the portion of the street to be improved and to lay lateral service pipes connected therewith, opposite each separate piece of property on said street or portion thereof, so to be improved to a point or points within the curb line or lines opposite thereto.
If such gas company or owners of gas mains shall fail to extend their gas mains within a reasonable time, to be fixed by said Common Council in said notice, to date from the service of such notice on such gas company or owner of such gas mains, as required to be extended, they shall not be permitted thereafter to lay their mains in the portion of the streets so paved or repaved but shall only be permitted thereafter to lay their mains under the sidewalks of the street so paved or repaved.
Whenever the sewer mains have been laid or completed in any street or portion thereof in or upon which the Common Council shall have finally determined to make improvements by paving or repaving, said Common Council shall immediately cause a notice to be published in the official paper of the city requiring the owner or owners of any and all property fronting or abutting on said street or portion thereof upon which improvements are to be made to make connections with the sewer mains on said streets or portion thereof to be improved and to make and lay service and house connection pipes from said sewer mains in front of each separate piece of property and, where directed by the Common Council, at least to a point within the line of the curbing, within such time and in such manner as the Common Council shall prescribe. Whenever any such owner or occupant shall have made default in making such connections with such sewer mains opposite the lands or premises owned or occupied by him or in making and laying service and house connection pipes therefrom at least to a point within the line of the curbing, as directed in and required by said printed notice therefor, in the manner and within the time therein specified, the Common Council shall have power and authority to make, extend and complete the same to a point within the line of curbing opposite thereto and in front thereof, and the actual expense thereof, including all labor done and materials used in doing and completing the same, shall be assessed by the Common Council upon each separate piece of property opposite which the same shall be done and completed and shall be a lien on said premises and the lots of land respectively, and the same shall be collected in the same manner as provided by this Act for the collection and enforcement of the expenses of constructing and relaying of sidewalks and curbstones.