ACT 3930.

An act to provide for work upon streets, lanes, alleys, courts, places, and sidewalks, and for the construction of sewers within municipalities.

[Approved March 18, 1885. Stats. 1885, p. 147.]

Amended 1887, 148; 1889, 157; 1891, 116, 196, 461; 1893, 33, 89, 172; 1899, 23; 1903, 88.

97, 310;

97, 312;

97, 314;

97, 317; 98, 11;

99, 517;

99, 521; 102, 236; 102, 406;

102, 651;

103, 54; 103, 55; 103, 60;

35;

97, 308; 98, 430; 99, 295; 102, 417; 102, 423; 103, 66; 103, 78; 103, 175; 103, 529; 104, 458; 105, 164; 107, 234; 107, 429; 107, 430; 107, 431; 107, 496; 108, 108, 169; 112, 591; 115, 228; 117, 319; 117, 322; 119, 591; 121, 315; 121, 435; 121, 632; 122, 541; 126, 218; 127, 493; 128, 143; 128, 378; 129, 274; 130, 470; 134, 423; 136, 148; 136, 149; 136, 249; 138, 125; 138, 126; 138, 128.

Cal.Rep.Cit. 102, 417; 102, 423; 106, 158; 126, 444; 128, 129; 138, 123; 138, 124; 138, 129; 138, 130.

See Thomason v. Ruggles, 69 Cal. 465, and Oakland Pay. Co. v. Hilton, Id. 479.

The people of the state of California, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

Part I.

Section 1. All streets, lanes, alleys, places, or courts, in the municipalities of this state now open or dedicated, or which may hereafter be opened or dedicated to public use, shall be deemed and held to be open public streets, lanes, alleys, places, or courts, for the purposes of this act, and the city council of each municipality is hereby empowered to establish and change the grades of said streets, lanes, alleys, places, or courts, and fix the width thereof, and is hereby invested with jurisdiction to order to be done thereon any of the work mentioned in section two of this act, under the proceedings hereinafter described.

Sec. 2. Whenever the public interest or convenience may require, the city council is hereby authorized and empowered to order the whole, or any portion, either in length or width, of the streets, avenues, lanes, alleys, courts, or places of any such city graded or regraded to the official grade, planked or replanked, paved or repaved, macadamized or remacadamized, graveled or regraveled, piled or repiled, capped or recapped, sewered or resewered, and to order sidewalks, manholes, culverts, cesspools, gutters, tunnels, curbing, and crosswalks to be constructed therein, or to order breakwaters, levees, or walls of rock, or other material, to protect the same from overflow or injury, and to order any other work to be done which shall be necessary to complete the whole or any portion of said streets, avenues, sidewalks, lanes, alleys, courts, or places and it may order any of the said work to be improved; and also to order a sewer or sewers, with outlets, for drainage or sanitary purposes, in, over, or through any right of way granted or obtained for such purpose; provided, that whenever the grade of a street, avenue, lane, alley, court, or place shall hereafter be changed, the petition of the owners of a majority of the feet fronting thereon, asking for grading the same to the new grade. shall be a condition precedent to the ordering of such grading to be done. [Amendment approved March 11, 1893. Stats. 1893, p. 172.]

Sec. 3. Before ordering any work done or improvement made, which is authorized by section two of this act, the city council shall pass a resolution of intention so to do, and describing the work, which shall be posted conspicuously for two days on or near the chamber door of said council, and published by two insertions in one or more daily, semi-weekly, or weekly newspapers published and circulated in said city, and designated by said council for that purpose. The street superintendent shall there upon cause to be conspicuously posted along the line of said contemplated work or improvement, at not more than one hundred feet in distance apart, but not less than three in all, or when the work to be done is only upon an entire crossing or any part thereof, in front of each quar ter block and irregular block liable to be assessed, notices of the passage of said resolution. Said notice shall be headed "Notice of Street Work," in letters of not less than

one inch in length, and shall, in legible characters, state the fact of the passage of the resolution, its date, and briefly the work or improvement proposed, and refer to the resolution for further particulars. He shall also cause a notice, similar in substance, to be published for six days in one or more daily newspapers published and circulated in said city, and designated by said city council, or in cities where there is no daily newspaper, by one insertion in a semi-weekly or weekly newspaper so published, circulated and designated. In case there is no such paper published in said city, said notice shall be posted for six days on or near the chamber-door of said council, and in two other conspicuous places in said city, as hereinafter provided. The owners of a majority of the frontage of the property fronting on said proposed work or improvement, where the same is for one block or more, may make a written objection to the same within ten days after the expiration of the time of the publication and posting of said notice, which objection shall be delivered to the clerk of the city council, who shall indorse thereon the date of its reception by him, and such objections so delivered and indorsed shall be a bar for six months to any further proceedings in relation to the doing of said work or making said improvements, unless the owners of the onehalf or more of the frontage, as aforesaid, shall meanwhile petition for the same to be done. At any time before the issuance of the assessment roll, all owners of lots or lands liable to assessment therein, who, after the first publication of said resolution of intention, may feel aggrieved, or who may have objections to any of the subsequent proceedings of said council in relation to the performance of the work mentioned in said notice of intention, shall file with the clerk a petition of remonstrance, wherein they shall state in what respect they feel aggrieved, or the proceedings to which they object; such petition or remonstrance shall be passed upon by the said city council, and its decision therein shall be final and conclusive. But when the work or improvement proposed to be done is the construction of sewers, manholes, culverts, or cesspools, crosswalks, or sidewalks, and curbs, and the objection thereto is signed by the owners of a majority of the frontage liable to be assessed for the expense of said work, as aforesaid, the said city council

shall, at its next meeting, fix a time for hearing said objections, not less than one week thereafter. The city clerk shall thereupon notify the persons making such objections, by depositing a notice thereof in the postoffice of said city, postage prepaid, addressed to each objector, or his agent, when he appears for such objector. At the time specified said city council shall hear the objections urged, and pass upon the same, and its decisions shall be final and conclusive, and the said bar for six months to any further proceedings shall not be applicable thereto. And when not more than two blocks, including street crossings, remain ungraded to the official grade, or other wise unimproved, in whole or in part, and a block or more on each side upon said street has been so graded or other wise improved, or when not more than two blocks at the end of a street remain so ungraded or otherwise unim proved, said city council may order any of the work mentioned in this act to be done upon said intervening ungraded or unimproved part of said street, or at the end of a street, and said work upon said intervening part, or at the end of a street, shall not be stayed or prevented by any written or other objection unless such council shall deem proper. And if one half or more in width or in length, or as to grading, one half or more of the grading work of any street lying and being between two successive main street crossings, or if a crossing has been already partially graded or improved as aforesaid, said council may order the remainder improved, graded or otherwise, notwithstanding such objections of property owners. At the expiration of twenty days after the expiration of the time of said publication by said street superintendent, and at the expiration of twenty-five days after the advertising and posting, as aforesaid, of any resolution of intention, if no written objection to the work therein described has been delivered, as aforesaid, by the owners of a major frontage of the property fronting on said proposed work or improvement, or if any written objection purporting to be signed by the owners of a major frontage is disallowed by said council, as not of itself barring said work for six months, because in its judgment, said objection has not been legally signed by the owners of a majority of said frontage, the city council shall be deemed to have acquired jurisdiction to order any of the work to be done,

or improvement to be made, which is authorized by this act; which order, when made, shall be published for two days, the same as provided for the publication of the resolution of intention. Before passing any resolution for the construction of said improvements, plans and specifications and careful estimates of the costs and expenses thereof shall be furnished to said city council, if required by it, by the city engineer of said city; and for the work of constructing sewers, specifications shall always be furnished by him. Whenever the contemplated work of improvement, in the opinion of the city council, is of more than local or ordinary public benefit, or whenever, according to estimate to be furnished by the city engineer, the total estimated costs and expenses thereof would exceed one half the total assessed value of the lots and lands assessed, if assessed upon the lots or land fronting upon said proposed work or improvement, according to the valuation fixed by the last assessment roll whereon it was assessed for taxes for municipal purposes, and allowing a reasonable depth from such frontage for lots or lands assessed in bulk, the city council may make the expense of such work or improvement chargeable upon a district, which the said city council shall, in its resolution of intention, declare to be the district benefited by said work or improvement, and to be assessed to pay the costs and expenses thereof. Objections to the extent of the district of lands to be affected or benefited by said work or improvement, and to be assessed to pay the costs and expenses thereof, may be made by interested parties, in writing, within ten days after the expiration of the time of the publication of the notice of the passage of the resolution of intention. The city clerk shall lay said objections before the city council, which shall, at its next meeting, fix a time for hearing said objections not less than one week thereafter. The city clerk shall thereupon notify the persons making such objections by depositing a notice thereof in the postoffice of said city, postage prepaid, addressed to each objector. At the time specified the city council shall hear the objections urged, and pass upon the same, and its decision shall be final and conclusive. If the objections are sustained, all proceedings shall be stopped; but proceedings may be immediately again commenced by giving the notice of