Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-09
VIRGINIA CITIES
BODY FILES REPORT
Urges Amendment to Consti-
tuition to Permit Assess.
ment of Street Costs.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
RICHMOND, Va, January 9.-An
amendment to the constitution of Vir-
ginia whereby the cities would be per-
mitted to assess property owners for
part Of the cost of street improvement;
a recommendation that the State high
way commission be empowered to con-
struct, reconstruct and maintain roads
lying within the corporate limits of
cities with population less than that
of second-class cities, and further
recommendation that it is inadvisable
to divert any of the gasoline tax now
going to the State highway department
to the cities, comprise some of the
major articles in the report of the legis-
lative committee of the League of Vir-
ginia municipalities for 1880.
Report in Six Parts.
The report, which will be submitted
to the councils In every city and town
in Virginia, is divided into six parts.
Part deals with the construction and
maintenance of streets and offers
number of recommendations.
Section 2 of the report deals with the
public schools. Recommendations in
this section include q statement that
the State department of education
should be empowered Ito establish min
imum salaries and other expenditures
for public schools in the counties, cities
and towns and to have the State APP
propriate an amount necessary to meet
these requirements on plan Of public
instruction" This plan will elevate the
standards of education, the report says.
1t is further proposed that towns
which maintain their own schools
should be exempt from the county
school levy.
Section of the report concerns auto
mobile and traffic laws. This section is
divided into three divisions.
Section concerns taxation, with
that the 81 tax on
bank stock, under which provision 1t is
expressly provided that incorporated
towns may secure 80 per cent of said
amount from banks located in such
towns, should not be extended to in
clude cities.
Real Estate Assessments.
Real estate assessments should be
permitted to be made by the cities,
regardless of size or population, &C
cording to their own local ordinances,
and such assessments should be re-
quired to be made at least every five
years, and not oftener than once every
Section 5 deals with coming and city
planning and contains two proposals.
First, that the board of supervisors
of all countries be empowered to enact
coming ordinances where counties have
density of more than 500 per square
mile
Under the title OF city planning
the report said that 1.-The acts of 1928,
page ISL, provide for the recordation
of plats within three miles of any city
only in accordance with the city plan,
providing the board of supervisors
passes q resolution to that effect. It
is believed that this should be extended
to include towns for town property
within mile Of the corporate limits"
Section is devoted to miscellaneous
objects. It was proposed that deputy
clerks Of civil justices be given the
same power that the clerks have, and
that the act which states that any
automobile confiscated by the State
be amended so that the automobile
can be used not only by the State, but
also by the city, county or town.
Much money could be saved by the
cities, towns and counties If the in
spection Of gasoline, authorized by law,
be made before distribution to the
trade. Finally, it was proposed that
funds be appropriated to make a survey
Of the city and town governments of
the State, and a report of the findings
be made to the 1882 General Assembly
not later than three months before its