The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-01-29
ABSURDITY OF STREET LAWS
ARE A MENACE TO MUNICIPAL
PROGRESS.
How the Present Law is Made to
Stimulate and Encourage
Si1urianism.

The matter of the city's inability 10
enforce the Improvement of streets
when the owners of a majority OF the
property frontage of a block oppose
such Improvement is receiving conslo-
cradle attention. Sacramento mas
shaken off her thirty years burden Oh
bonded indebtedness, and her progress
i've citizens are determined that all
other obstacles to her advancement
must be brushed aside. One of these is
the inefficiency or weakness OIL the
Vrooman Act, under which all street
Improvements are carried on, as poinl-
ed out by the Record Union" the othei
day.
Mayor Land is fully alive to the stu
alton. and has prepared the following
message on the subject, which will be
submitted to the City Trustees al tneir
meeting tomorrow night:
Sacramento, January 18th.
To the Board of Trustees, of the CITY
of Sacramento: Section of the gen
eral Improvement Act of this State,
commonly known as the "Vrooman
Act" now provides in cases where the
CITY Council or other governing power
of a municipality resolves that certain
proposed street Improvements shall be
made. that 1.-The owners of q 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 10
the same within ten days after the ex-
piration of the time of the publication
and posting of said notices, which OBJ
lection shall be delivered to the Clerk
of the City Council, who shall indorse
thereon the date of its reception by
him, and such objection so delivered
and Endorsed shall be a bar for SIX
months to any further proceedings IN
relation to the doing of said work or
making said Improvement, unless the
owners of the one-half, or more, of the
frontage, as aforesaid, shall meanwhile
petition for the same to be done"
Heretofore it has been conteuded-
and this construction placed upon it by
some of the municipalities of this State
that at the end of the six months the
municipality could take the matter up
just where it had been checked by the
protest and proceed with the needed
Improvement, and such action has in
some instances been taken by our city
Recently, however, our Supreme
Court, in an opinion delivered Deem
Der 30. 1893, in the case of the City
Street Improvement Company VS. Bah
cock, has decided that after a sufficient
protest has been filed the work cannot
be ordered again without reinitiating
the proceedings by passing and pub
fishing a new notice of intention there
for, and that the property owners may
in in, ri
strate against the work and effectually
block the proposed Improvement. no
matter how necessary or important to-
the city it may be.
1 believe the section as it now stands
is q. menace to municipal progress, and
that the limitless privilege given own
ers to prevent street Improvement
should be at least abridged by appro-
pirate and early legislation.
I respectfully suggest that your hon
orable board at once bring this matter
to the attention of our representatives
in the present Legislature and instruct
them to secure the passage of an
amendment to this Act which will limit
the time as to the stay by remonstrance
of proposed public Improvements. Very
respectfully,
WILLIAM LAND. Mayor
The Chamber of Commerce has also
taken action in this matter. At the
meeting of the Directors of that body
yesterday the following resolution was
adopted:
Whereas, Under a decision Of the Su-
preme Court in the case of the City
Street Improvement Company VS.. Bah
cock, appealed from Judge Sewell's
department of the Superior Court of
San Francisco, in the matter of street
Improvements. it is held that at the
end of six months the proceedings must
be reinitiated. and that remonstrants
may again protest and again stay the
work. and.
Whereas, So long as protests sufff-
cient are made no street can be i'm
proved. no matter how deplorable it's
condition, and thus a portion of a
street in line of improved highway
may remain for years a nuisance, and
the city be powerless to remedy the
condition: therefore,
Resolved. That the Sacramento Cham
Der of Commerce is in favor of amend
ing the Erooman Act so as to limit the
time to a stay by protest to six months.
and that. upon subsequent protests be-
ing made, the renlonstrance must be
signed by the owners of at least three
quarters of the direct frontage of the
block or blocks affected thereby: and
that our representatives to the Legis-
lature be requested to prepare such an
amendment and to urge its adoption
by the Legislature now in session:
Resolved. That the Committee on
Law and Legislation of this chamber
be instructed to take charge of this
matter, with full power to act.