No order shall be made and no injunction shall be granted by any judge or court of this Commonwealth to stay the proceedings of the city in the exercise of any power herein granted it over its streets, unless it be manifest that it is exceeding its powers and that the interposition of the court is necessary to prevent injury which cannot be adequately compensated in damages.
In every case where a street in said city has been or shall be encroached upon by any fence, building or otherwise, the council may require the owner, if known, or if unknown, the occupant of the premises encroaching, to remove the same, and if such removal be not made within the time prescribed by the council, they may impose a penalty of five dollars for each and every day it is allowed to continue thereafter, and may cause the encroachment to be removed and collected from the owner all reasonable charge therefore, with costs, by the same process that they are hereinbefore empowered to collect taxes. No encroachment upon any street, however long continued, shall constitute an adverse possession to or confer any rights upon the person claiming thereunder as against the said city.
Whenever any street, alley or lane in said city shall have been opened to and used as such by the public for the period of five years, the council may declare the same a street, alley or lane for public purposes, and the council shall have the same authority and jurisdiction over and rights and interest therein, as they have by law over the streets, alleys and lanes laid out by them, and any street or alley reserved in the division or subdivision into lots of any portion of the territory within the corporate limits of said city by a plot or plan of record, shall be deemed and held to be dedicated to public use, unless it appears by said record that the said street or alley so reserved is designed for private use; but upon a petition of a majority of the persons interested therein, the council shall have the power to open the same for the use of the public. (Acts 1934, Ch. 239, § 31; Acts 1.950, Ch. 249)
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Annotation – In the case of Staunton v. Augusta Corp., 169 Va. 424, 193 S. E. 695, a suit to quiet title to a strip of land which had been unoccupied by any structure for almost fifty years, and was paved uniformly with the sidewalk, the city contended that by virtue of the above section, as it appeared prior to the 1950 amendment, the prescriptive period was reduced to five years, and the strip had become a part of the sidewalk. It was, however, held that, there being no proof of an adverse use, it was immaterial whether the use was for a period of five years or twenty years. This provision required the same evidence of dedication, to put it in operation, as the law requires to raise an implication of a common law dedication from mere user of a way.
The council may appoint a city planning commission of five citizens, chosen because of their interest in and knowledge of city planning, whose powers and duties shall be prescribed by the council by ordinance, who shall serve without compensation.
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Editor's note – For further authority to provide for a planning commission, see § 11(19) of this Charter.
No action shall be maintained against the said city for damages for any injury to any person or property alleged to have been sustained by reason of the negligence of the city or of any officer, agent, or employee thereof, unless a written statement, verified by the oath of the claimant, his agent or attorney, or the personal representative of any decedent, whose death is the result of the alleged negligence of the city, its officers, agents, or employees, of the nature of the claim and the time and place at which the injury is alleged to have occurred to have been received, shall have been filed with the city attorney of said city within sixty days after such cause or action shall have occurred. And no officers, agents or employees of the city shall have authority to waive such conditions precedent or any of them.
All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act and former Charters and amendments thereof for the City of Staunton are hereby repealed; and all acts and parts of acts in any way concerning the City of Staunton and the rights of the people thereof, or any of them, not inconsistent with this act, shall be in full force, to all intents and purposes, as if this act had never been passed.
All ordinances now in force in said city, not inconsistent with this act, the laws of this state and of the United States, shall be and remain in force until altered, amended or repealed by said council.