ment may specify what use is required of the real property which it may determine shall be acquired for public use, and the extent of such use, and may direct the same to be acquired whenever and as often as it shall deem it for the public interest so to do. The real property required for such purposes may be taken therefor, and compensation and recompense shall be made to the owners thereof. The real property benefited by the improvement may be assessed for the benefit and advantage derived therefrom. In all proceedings authorized by the board of estimate and apportionment prior to the first day of January, nineteen hundred and seventeen, the said board shall determine whether the compensation to be made to the owners of the real property to be acquired shall be ascertained by the supreme court without a jury, or by three commissioners of estimate to be appointed by the said court. In proceedings in which the board of estimate and apportionment shall determine that the compensation to be made to the owners of the real property to be acquired shall be ascertained by the supreme court without a jury, the city of New York shall make application, or cause application to be made to the said court, in a county within the city of New York and within the judicial district in which the real property to be acquired is situated, to have the compensation, which should justly be made to the respective owners of the real property proposed to be taken, ascertained and determined by the said court without a jury, and to have the cost of the improvement, or such portion thereof as the board of estimate and apportionment shall direct, assessed by the court upon such real property as the board of estimate and apportionment may deem to be benefited thereby. In proceedings in which the board of estimate and apportionment shall determine that the compensation, which should justly be made to the owners of the real property proposed to be taken, shall be ascertained by three commissioners of estimate to be appointed by the said court, the city of New York shall make application, or cause application to be made to the said court in a county within the city of New York and within the judicial district in which the real property to be acquired is situated, for the appointment of three commissioners of estimate to ascertain and determine the compensation to be made to the owners of the real property proposed to be acquired, and in a proper case, for the appointment of one of the commissioners of estimate as a commissioner of assessment for the purpose of levying the assessment of the cost of the improve- added by ch. 606, § 2. Section nine hundred and seventy-six of the Greater § 976, as New York charter, as re-enacted by chapter four hundred and L. 1915, sixty-six of the laws of nineteen hundred and one and chapter amended. six hundred and six of the laws of nineteen hundred and fifteen,3 is hereby amended so as to read as follows: VESTING OF TITLE IN THE CITY TO REAL PROPERTY TAKEN FOR 8976. Should the board of estimate and apportionment at any time deem it for the public interest that the title to the real Section 976 was added by L. 1915, ch. 606. property required for any improvement, authorized herein, should be acquired by the city of New York at a fixed or specified time, the said board of estimate and apportionment may direct, by a three-fourths vote, that upon the date of the entry of the order granting the application to condemn or upon the date of the filing .of.the oaths of the commissioners of estimate, as the case may be, as provided for in this title, or upon a specified date after either, the title to any piece or parcel of real property lying within the lines of any improvement herein authorized, shall be vested in the city of New York. Upon the date of the entry of the order granting the application to condemn, or upon the date of the filing of such oaths, as the case may be, or upon such subsequent ...date as may be specified by said board, the city of New York shall become and be seized in fee of or of the easement, in, over, upon or under, the said real property described in the said resolution, as the board of estimate and apportionment may determine, the same to be held, appropriated, converted and used to and for such purpose accordingly. In such cases interest at the legal rate upon the sum or sums to which the owners are justly entitled upon the date of the vesting of title in the city of New York, as aforesaid, from said date to the date of the final decree of the court or to the date of the report of the commissioners of estimate, as the case may be, shall be awarded by the court or by the commissioners, as the case may be, as part of the compensation to which such owners are entitled. In all other cases, title as aforesaid shall vest in the city of New York upon the filing of the final decree of the court or upon the entry of the order confirming the report of the commissioners of estimate, as the case may be, and the reversal on appeal of the final decree of the court or of the order of confirmation, as the case may be, shall not divest the city of title to the real property affected by the appeal. Upon the vesting of title the city of New York, or any person or persons acting under its authority, may immediately, or any time thereafter, take possession of the real property so vested in the city, or any part or parts thereof, without any suit or proceeding at law for that purpose. The title acquired by the city of New York to real property required for a street shall be in trust, that the same be appropriated and kept open for, or as part of a public street, forever, in like manner as the other streets in the city are and of right ought to be. "The board of estimate and apportion 4 Words "such street or park, or of any " omitted. 5 Following sentence new. If ment may, at the time of the adoption of the resolution instituting the proceedings in which lands are to be acquired for courtyard purposes, determine whether the fee or an easement shall be acquired in lands required for courtyards, and it may prescribe such conditions and limitations on the title so to be acquired and as to the temporary or permanent use of the land so to be acquired as it may deem proper, and the title which the city shall acquire to the lands required for courtyard purposes shall be such as the board of estimate and apportionment shall determine, and such title shall be held by the city subject to such limitations and conditions as to title thereto or as to the use thereof as the board of estimate and apportionment shall prescribe. "If not inconsistent with such limitations and conditions as to title or as to use, land acquired for courtyard purposes may be devoted to general street uses whenever the board of estimate and apportionment shall determine that the public interest requires such use. any individual or corporation before the entry of the order granting the application to condemn or before the appointment of the commissioners of estimate, as the case may be, has acquired by private grant, prescription or otherwise, any easement for the purpose of laying or maintaining in the real property to be acquired for street purposes as herein provided, underground pipes or conduits for the distribution of water, gas, steam or electricity, or for pneumatic service, such easement shall not be extinguished, but the title to the real property so to be acquired for the purposes herein provided for shall be taken subject to such easement; provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to limit the power of the city of New York to acquire by purchase or by condemnation proceedings the entire plant or service of such individual or corporation, or to acquire such easement in such street in any other appropriate proceedings. The title in fee acquired by the city of New York to real property required for all purposes provided for in this title, except street and courtyard purposes, shall be a fee simple absolute. §3. This act shall take effect immediately. Following sentence new. • Words "and courtyard" new. L. 1897, ch. 378, § 439, as re-enacted Chap. 632. AN ACT to amend the Greater New York charter, so as to provide for laying out on the map or plan of the city of New York improvements of the navigation of waters within or separating parts of said city by the establishment of bulkhead and pierhead lines, and also to provide for laying out courtyards abutting streets and avenues shown on such map or plan. Became a law May 23, 1917, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, three-fifths being present. Accepted by the City. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: Section 1. Section four hundred and thirty-nine of the Greater New York charter, as re-enacted by chapter four hundred and re-ec01, sixty-six of the laws of nineteen hundred and one, as amended,1 is ch. 466, hereby amended so as to read as follows: amendel. MAP TO BE COMPLETED. § 439. It shall be the duty of the president of each borough comprised within the city of New York, as constituted by this act, subject to the limitations hereinafter provided, to prepare a map of that part of the territory embraced within the borough of which he is president, of which a map or plan has not heretofore been finally established and adopted, as set forth in section four hundred and thirty-eight of this act, locating and laying out all parks, playgrounds, streets, bridges, tunnels and approaches to bridges and tunnels, and indicating the width and grades of all such streets so located and laid out; also locating and laying out courtyards abutting streets; also locating and laying out improvements of navigation by establishing, on the recommendation of the commissioner of docks, bulkhead and pierhead lines in and along the waters within or separating parts of the city of New York, other than waters of the Hudson, East and Harlem rivers, New York bay, Kill von Kull, Arthur kill and Long Island sound.2 It shall be the duty of the president of each borough under the direction of the mayor to continue and complete the sys 1 By L. 1903, ch. 406, L. 1911, ch. 675, and L. 1913, ch. 329. Long Island |