[R.O. 2016 § 515.220; CC 1994 § 16.305]
A.
In all cases where the proper authorities of the City have graded or regraded, or may hereafter grade or change the grade or lines of any street or alley, or in any way alter or enlarge the same, or construct any public improvement, thereby causing damage to private property for public use, within the meaning of Section 26 of Article I of the Missouri State Constitution, without the consent of the owner of such property, or in case they fail to agree with the owner thereof for the proper compensation for the damages so done, or likely to be done or sustained by reason thereof, or if by reason of the legal incapacity of such owner, no such compensation can be agreed upon, the Circuit Court having jurisdiction over the territory embraced in the City on application by petition, either by the City Council or the owner of the property for which damage is claimed, or any one on behalf of either, shall appoint three (3) disinterested residents of the City, who shall meet upon the premises at a time by them to be appointed, of which they shall give personal notice to the owners, or their agents, of the land affected, if they can be found, as well as five (5) days notice by advertisement in the local newspaper; and having first been duly sworn to perform their duties justly and impartially, and a true report to make, shall view the street or alley or improvement and premises affected by the change or enlargement or construction thereof, having due regard to and making just allowances for the advantages which have resulted or which may seem likely to result to the owner or owners of property for which damages may be allowed or claimed, and after such comparison shall estimate and determine whether any, and if any, how much damages such property may have sustained, or seems likely to sustain by reason thereof, and make report of the same, and if no exceptions be filed within ten (10) days thereafter, or in the event exceptions are filed and overruled, the court shall confirm the report and enter judgment thereon with costs, from which judgment either or any party shall be entitled to an appeal or writ of error, as in other cases.
B.
If the proceedings seek to affect the lands
of persons under conservatorship, the conservators must be made parties;
if the lands of married persons, their spouses must be made parties;
if the possessor of lands to be affected has an estate less than a
fee, the person having the next vested estate in remainder or reversion
must, if known, be made a party. It shall not be necessary to make
any persons parties in respect to their ownership unless they are
in actual possession of the premises to be affected, or have a title
to the premises appearing of record.
C.
The petition shall set forth the general
nature of the work or improvement causing damage to private property
for public use as aforesaid, together with all the facts necessary
to give the court jurisdiction in the premises, the names of the owners
of the several lots or parcels of land to be affected thereby, if
known, or if unknown, a correct description of the parcels whose owners
are unknown. The petition may be presented to the Circuit Court.
D.
Upon filing the petition a summons shall
be issued, giving the defendants at least ten (10) days notice of
the time when the petition will be heard, which summons shall be served
in the same manner as writs of summons are or may be by law required
to be served. If the name or residence of the defendants, or any of
them, be unknown, or if they, or any of them, do not reside within
the State, notice of the time of hearing the petition, reciting the
substance of the petition, and the day fixed for the hearing thereof,
shall be given by publication for four (4) weeks consecutively prior
to the time of the hearing of the petition, in the local newspapers,
and the court on being satisfied that due notice of the pending of
the petition has been given, shall make the above appointment.
E.
The City Council shall, before the filing
of such petition, define by ordinance the limits within which private
property is deemed benefitted by the change, enlargement, grading,
regrading or improvement aforesaid, and the owners of the private
property within such limits shall be made parties defendants, as provided
in this Section, and served with notice and process as provided in
this Section.
[R.O. 2016 § 515.230; CC 1994 § 16.310]
It shall be the duty of the appointed
commissioners, in every case where damages are allowed as aforesaid,
to provide for the payment of such damages by assessing against the
City the amount of benefit, if any, to the public generally by reason
of the change, enlargement or improvement aforesaid, and the balance,
if any, against all property which shall, in the opinion of the commissioners,
be especially benefitted by the proposed change, enlargement or improvement,
to the amount that each lot or tract of ground shall be benefitted
thereby. The sum to be paid by the owners of the property especially
benefitted as aforesaid shall be a lien on the property charged from
the date of the final decree of the Circuit Court, and the court,
when it makes such decree and confirms the report of the commissioners,
shall render a special judgment against each tract or parcel of private
property assessed in said report for benefits, to the amount assessed
against each tract and parcel, which judgment shall be a special judgment
and bind the property and the interests of the defendant therein.
If said judgment is not paid within ten (10) days thereafter, then
there shall be issued from said court in favor of the City a special
execution against each tract or parcel separately, and the same shall
be sold in the same manner as is now provided by law for sales of
real estate under execution. Said judgment shall bear fifteen percent
(15%) interest from ten (10) days from the rendition thereof; and
the cost of such execution and proceedings thereunder shall be taxed
against the defendants.
[R.O. 2016 § 515.240; CC 1994 § 16.315]
All real property, including rights-of-way,
yards and depot grounds, situated within the corporate limits of Park
Hills, of any railroad company which now owns or operates, or which
may hereafter own or operate, any railroad or part of a railroad within
the corporate limits of Park Hills, shall be subject to special assessments
for public improvements made by the City, in the same manner and to
the same extent in all respects as the real property of any other
person or corporation therein. And all laws which now or which may
hereafter be in force for the making, enforcement and collection of
such special assessments against the real property of other persons
and corporations in Park Hills, shall apply to and govern the making,
collection and enforcement of such special assessments against such
real property of any such railroad company in the same manner and
to the same extent as to such special assessments against the real
property of other persons and corporations therein.
[R.O. 2016 § 515.250; CC 1994 § 16.320]
Private property may be taken by
the City of Park Hills for public use for the purpose of establishing,
opening, widening, extending or altering any street, avenue, alley,
wharf, creek, river, watercourse, market place, public park or public
square, and for establishing market houses, and for any other necessary
public purpose.
[R.O. 2016 § 515.260; CC 1994 § 16.325]
As soon as practicable after the
confirmation of any verdict rendered under this Article by the City
Council in the proceedings for the condemnation of private property,
the City Clerk shall file a full record, in a book provided for that
purpose, of such proceedings, which record shall contain correct copies
of all ordinances constituting part of the proceedings, the notices
to the parties to the proceedings, and returns thereon; all notices
published and the proofs thereof, all orders by the Mayor, the names
of the jurors and when impaneled, and the verdict of the jury, and
such other documents and matters as the ordinances of the City may
require. The Mayor shall examine such final record of such proceedings,
and if it be correct, sign the same; and thereafter such record, or
copy thereof, certified by the City Clerk, under his/her hand and
the Seal of the City, shall be competent evidence in all courts of
this State of facts stated therein. The original papers shall be carefully
preserved by the City Clerk.
[R.O. 2016 § 515.270; CC 1994 § 16.330]
The City of Park Hills shall have
full power and authority, under the following conditions, to do the
following things: To levy and collect taxes, for general revenue purposes,
on all property within the limits of the City, taxable according to
the laws of this State. To grade, pave (the word "pave" as herein
used meaning to improve with all kinds of street paving, including
macadamizing), gutter, curb and otherwise improve streets and alleys,
and parts of same, and to reconstruct and repair any paving, grading,
guttering and curbing, and to make and repair sidewalks, bridges,
culverts and crosswalks, and to condemn and destroy any sidewalk deemed
unfit for use, and replace the same with a new one of the same or
different material, and to exercise control over streets and alleys,
and establish and reestablish grades thereon. The cost of bridges,
culverts and footwalks across streets and alleys shall be paid for
out of the general revenue funds of the City. The cost of grading
streets and alleys shall be charged against the lots and tracts of
land fronting or abutting on the street or alley, or part of same,
so improved, and on the improvement, in proportion to the number of
fronting or abutting feet. The City shall have the power to grade
all, or any part of any street, or alley, but when the sidewalk part
of any street, that is the part between the curb line and the street
line, is graded exclusive of the other parts of same, the cost of
the grading shall be charged against the lots and tracts of land fronting
or abutting on the side of the street so improved, and on the improvement,
in proportion to the number of fronting or abutting feet. The cost
of making curbing and sidewalks shall be charged against the lots
and tracts of land fronting or abutting on the improvement in proportion
to the fronting or abutting feet, except that in making sidewalks,
corner lots shall be charged with the cost of extending the sidewalk
to the curb lines of intersecting streets, and in making curbing,
corner lots shall be charged with the cost of extending the curbing
to the curb lines of intersecting streets, and curbing and extending
the curbing back to the street line at intersecting streets and alleys.
The cost of repairing sidewalks and curbing shall be charged against
the particular lot or tract of land fronting or abutting on the part
repaired. The cost of paving, guttering and otherwise improving any
alley and the roadway part of any street, that is, the part between
curb lines, including street intersections, shall be charged against
the lots and tracts of land fronting or abutting on the street or
alley so improved along the distance improved, in proportion to the
number of fronting or abutting feet. When the paving or guttering
on any street or alley is only repaired ("repaired" as here used shall
not include any improvement where the entire surface of a paving is
renewed, but such renewal shall be considered as paving), the cost
of such repairing shall be charged in the following manner, namely:
The street or alley shall be divided into sections, a section being
the distance from the center line of one (1) cross or intersecting
street to the center line of the next cross or intersecting street,
and the cost of repairing each section shall be charged against the
lots and tracts of land fronting or abutting on that section in proportion
to the number of fronting or abutting feet.
[R.O. 2016 § 515.280; CC 1994 § 16.335]
A.
All lands owned by any County or other
political or municipal subdivisions, cemeteries and railroad rights-of-way,
fronting or abutting on any of said improvements shall be liable for
their proportionate part of the cost of such improvement, and tax
bills shall be issued against such property as against other property,
and any County, City or other political or municipal subdivision that
shall own any such property shall out of the general revenue funds
or other funds pay any such tax bill, and in any case where any County,
City or other political or municipal subdivision, cemetery company
or owners or railroad company, shall fail to pay any such tax bill,
the owner or holder of same may sue such County, City or other political
or municipal subdivision, cemetery company or owners or railroad company
on such tax bill, and be entitled to recover a general judgment against
such County, City or other political or municipal subdivision, cemetery
company or owners or railroad company.
B.
Any of said street improvements may be
paid for in whole or part by the City out of general revenue funds,
or other funds which the City may have for such purposes if the Council
so desires, but all such improvements shall be paid for with special
tax bills, unless the proceedings of the City for same specify that
payment will be out of the general revenue funds or other funds in
whole or part.
C.
The charges made against lands for all
of said improvements shall be known as special assessments or taxes,
for improvements, and shall be charged and assessed by issuing special
tax bills against the lands chargeable with the cost of the improvements;
each special tax bill so issued shall be a special lien on the land
against which it is issued.
[R.O. 2016 § 515.290; CC 1994 § 16.340]
A.
Before the City Council shall be authorized,
under the provisions of this Article, to grade or pave any alley,
or to grade, pave or gutter the roadway part of any street, when the
improvement is to be paid for with special tax bills, they shall,
by resolution, declare that they deem such improvement necessary to
be made, and shall cause such resolution to be published in some newspaper
printed and published in the City, for two (2) consecutive insertions
in a weekly paper, or seven (7) consecutive insertions in a daily
paper, and if a majority of the resident owners of the lands that
would be liable for the cost of the improvement, at the date of the
passage of the resolution, who shall own a majority of the front feet
owned by residents of the City, abutting on the street or part of
street proposed to be improved, shall not within ten (10) days after
the date of the last publication file with the City Clerk their protest
against such improvement, then the Council shall have the power to
cause the improvement to be made; and if the Council shall find and
declare by ordinance that no such majority have so filed such protest,
such finding and declaration shall be conclusive, after the execution
of the contract for the making of the improvement, and thereafter
no special tax bill shall be held invalid for the reason that a protest
sufficiently signed was filed with the Clerk.
B.
The Council shall have full power to make
all provisions deemed necessary for the making of contracts by the
City, for the doing of all the work necessary in making the improvements
herein specified, but all such contracts shall be let to the lowest
and best bidder, upon advertisement for bids, published by two (2)
consecutive insertions in a weekly paper or seven (7) consecutive
insertions in a daily paper in some newspaper published in the City.
C.
But before the City shall make any contract
for any of said improvements excepting repairs, an estimate of the
cost thereof shall be made by the City Engineer, and in case there
be no City Engineer, such estimate shall be made by some other person
designated by ordinance. Such estimate shall be filed with the City
Clerk and no contract shall be made for a price exceeding such estimate.
D.
The Council shall have the power to require
any contractor doing work to guarantee that an improvement will last
for a specified term of years, and during such term will be kept in
repair, and to require the contractor to give to the City approved
bonds for the faithful performance of any obligation.
E.
The Council shall have the power to repair
any sidewalk, curbing, guttering or paving without letting any contract
for such work, but can have such work done in such manner as may be
provided for by ordinance. When such work is done by the City, not
through a contractor, the tax bills shall be issued to the City and
the City shall have the same power to collect such tax bills as other
owners of tax bills.
[R.O. 2016 § 515.300; CC 1994 § 16.345]
When the City Council shall deem
it necessary to pave, macadamize, gutter, curb, grade or otherwise
improve the roadway of any street or avenue for a distance not more
than twelve hundred (1,200) feet in length so as to connect at both
ends with paving, macadamizing, guttering, curbing, grading or other
improvement either on the same street or avenue or on other streets
or avenues, or on the same street or avenue and another street or
avenue, the Council shall declare such work to be necessary to be
done and shall cause the same proceedings to be had as are provided
in this Article, except that no protest may be filed. The resolution
passed and published shall state the fact that anyone desiring to
do so may appear before the Council at a time stated therein and be
heard on the question of the necessity of the work sought to be done,
and if anyone does so appear he/she shall be heard, and the Council
shall by resolution state the result of such hearing to be a re-affirmance
of the necessity for the doing of such work or the contrary, as the
Council may then decide. If no one appears, or if the Council reaffirms
the necessity of the doing of such work and improvement, then it shall
proceed with such work and improvement in the manner provided in Sections
88.497 to 88.647, RSMo., for such work and improvement when no sufficient
protest against such improvement is filed within the time limited
therefor.
[R.O. 2016 § 515.310; CC 1994 § 16.350]
A.
The Council shall have power to limit the cost to be assessed as a special tax against the abutting property for street improvement as provided in Section 515.290 of this Chapter. If the Council shall, in the resolution provided for by said Section, declare that the cost of the proposed work, not to exceed an amount per front foot to be stated in the resolution, shall be charged to the abutting property and limited to such amount, and the balance, if any, shall be charged to the City, then any cost in excess of such stated amount shall be borne by the general revenue, and only that part of the cost limited to such stated amount per front foot shall be charged against the abutting property.
B.
In proceeding under this Section the Council
may let the work to contract as provided in Sections 88.497 to 88.647,
RSMo., or have the same done by its Public Works Director under such
supervision as it may direct by ordinance. In either case, the whole
cost shall be paid out of the general revenue, and special tax bills
shall then be assessed by ordinance against the abutting property
for its part of the cost when the work is completed, and special tax
bills issued therefor, made payable to the City, signed by the Mayor
and attested by the City Clerk with the Seal of the City affixed.
Said special tax bills, when due and after demand of payment, may
be sued upon for nonpayment whenever the Council shall so order. Said
tax bills shall be delivered and charged by the City Clerk to the
City Collector for collection, and the Collector shall be entitled
to two and one-half percent (2 1/2%) upon the amount of such
collections made by him/her for his/her service in collecting the
same.
C.
All of the provisions of this Article, relating to the assessment, issue, rate of interest, lien, abstracting, collection, releasing and cancellation of special tax bills for improvements mentioned in said Section 515.290, so far as applicable and not inconsistent with the provisions of this Section, shall apply to tax bills issued in pursuance of this Section.
