488 PARKS 



Examples of legal procedure for condemnation of land. The following are 

 examples of provisions in state constitutions giving the legislatures the right 

 to grant the power of excess condemnation to municipalities: 



New York State. "The legislature may authorize cities to take more 

 land and property than is needed for actual construction, in the laying out, 

 widening, extending or relocating parks, public places, highways or streets, 

 provided, however, that the additional land or property so authorized to 

 be taken shall be no more than sufficient to form suitable building sites 

 abutting on such park, public place, highway or street. After so much 

 of the land or property has been appropriated as is needed therefor, the 

 remainder may be sold or leased." An amendment to the Constitution 

 of the state of New York, adopted at the general election of 1913. Quoted 

 from "The Planning of the Modern City," Lewis, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 

 1923, Chapter XIX, pages 387-388. 



Ohio. "A municipality, appropriating or otherwise acquiring property 

 for public use, may, in furtherance of such public property use, appropriate 

 or acquire an excess over that actually to be occupied by the improvement, 

 and may sell such excess with such restrictions as shall be appropriate to 

 preserve the improvement made. Bonds may be issued to supply the funds 

 in whole or in part to pay for the excess property so appropriated or other- 

 wise acquired, but said bonds shall be a lien only against the property so 

 acquired for the improvement and excess, and they shall not be a liability 

 of the municipality prescribed by law." - Constitution of the state of 

 Ohio, Article 18, Section 10, adopted September 3, 1912. 



"By this method the city may buy any desired area, improve it with 

 grading and roadways, condemn for park purposes the section required 

 and sell the excess land under the proper restrictions at a price for the 

 excess land improved and abutting the park area that would cover the 

 cost of both land and improvement. This method of financing has had its 

 widest use in Germany and a large number of parks have been acquired 

 and financed in this way at only a temporary cost to the municipality. 

 The rapid increase in values of land, adjacent to park and boulevard areas, 

 benefited by the improvement of land for park and boulevard purposes, has 

 been well demonstrated in the development of almost every park area in 

 Greater Cleveland." - A study and report on city parks and boulevards 

 of Cleveland, September, 1923, by the Community Betterment Council of 

 Cleveland. 



A provision of the state law providing for the creation of a board of 

 park commissioners for the city of Nashville reads as follows: "Said board 

 of park commissioners shall have full power and authority to purchase any 



