§ 11-122-2

Subject to the provisions of Section 11-122-6, every city may lease street railways, or any part thereof, owned by the city to any company incorporated under the laws of this state for the purpose of operating street railways for any period, not longer than 20 years, on such terms and conditions as the city council deems for the best interests of the public. Such a city has the power to incorporate in any grant of the right to construct or operate street railways a reservation of the right on the part of the city to take over all or part of those street railways, at or before the expiration of the grant, upon such terms and conditions as may be provided in the grant. The city also has the power to provide in such a grant that in case the reserved right is not exercised by the city and the city grants a right to another company to operate a street railway in the streets or part of the streets occupied by its grantee under the former grant, the new grantee shall purchase and take over the street railways of the former grantee upon the terms that the city might have taken them over. The city council of the city has the power to make a grant, containing such a reservation, for either the construction or operation or both the construction and operation of a street railway in, upon, and along any of the streets or public ways therein, or portions thereof, in which street railway tracks are already located at the time of the making of the grant, without the petition or consent of any of the owners of the land abutting or fronting upon any street or public way, or portion thereof, covered by the grant. No ordinance authorizing a lease for a longer period than 5 years, nor any ordinance renewing any lease, shall go into effect until the expiration of 30 days from and after its publication. The ordinance shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the city. The publication or posting of the ordinance shall be accompanied by a notice of (1) the specific number of voters required to sign a petition requesting the question of authorizing the lease of a street railway for a period longer than 5 years to be submitted to the electors; (2) the time in which such petition must be filed; and (3) the date of the prospective referendum. The city clerk shall provide a petition form to any individual requesting one. And if, within that 30 days, there is filed with the city clerk a petition signed by voters in the municipality equal to 10% or more of the registered voters in the municipality, asking that the ordinance be submitted to a popular vote, the ordinance shall not go into effect unless the question of its adoption is first submitted to the electors of the city and approved by a majority of those voting thereon. The signatures to the petition need not all be on one paper but each signer shall add to his signature, which shall be in his own handwriting, his place of residence, giving the street and number. One of the signers of each such paper shall make oath before an officer competent to administer oaths, that each signature on the paper is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be. In case of the leasing by any city of any street railway owned by it, the rental reserved shall be based on both the actual value of the tangible property and of the franchise contained in the lease, and the rental shall not be less than a sufficient sum to meet the annual interest upon all outstanding bonds or street railway certificates issued by the city on account of that street railway.

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 87-767.)