CHAPTER 137

AN ACT to amend and reenact § 17 as amended, of Chapter 89 of the
Acts of Assembly of 1982, approved February 20, 1982, which pro-
vided a new charter for the city of Winchester, relating to the powers
of the council with respect to laying out streets.

(S 1381]
Approved February 28, 1958

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That § 17 as amended, of Chapter 39 of the Acts of Assembly of
1932, approved February 20, 1932, be amended and reenacted as follows:
. 17. Laying out streets; pavement and repair of sidewalks upon
existing streets. (a) The council may establish, open, widen, extend,
grade, improve, construct, maintain, alter or close public highways and
streets and regulate the use thereof. No property within the corporate
limits of the city or within * three miles of the limits, as now or here-
after established, shall be laid out with streets or alleys thereon, except
upon a plan or plat to be submitted to the city manager and approved by
the council; provided, however, that any such plans affecting territory
more than two miles beyond such corporate limits must be approved by
the governing body of the county in which the same is located. Said plat
or plan shall, if so approved by the council, be recorded in the clerk’s
office of the corporation court of the city within sixty days after ap-
proval. The council may, after said approval, require the owner to lay
out and establish proper building lines on the platted land and to show
on the plat that all conveyances of lots shown on the plat are to be made
with reference to such building lines, for the benefit of the respective lot
owners of the city. The city shall not be liable for any accidents or
damages which may occur or be sustained upon any such street, alley,
boulevard or way, heretofore or hereafter laid out, until the same has
been finally accepted by the council by proper ordinance.

(b) The council shall have the power to cause the footways or side-
walks upon the existing streets of the city to be paved, repaved and re-
paired, at the expense of the abutting owners or occupiers of the lots or
parts of lots; provided the assessment so imposed shall not be in excess
of the peculiar benefits resulting therefrom to such abutting landowners;
and in case they or either of them shall neglect or refuse to pave, repave
or repair the sidewalks when required, it shall be lawful for the council
to have the same paved, repaved or repaired, and recover the expense
thereof before the Trial Justice or the Corporation Court, and in all cases
where a tenant is required to pave in front of the property in his or her
occupation, the expense of the paving so done shall be a good offset
against so much of the rent as he or she shall have paid toward such
paving, but no tenant shall be required to pay more for or on account of
such paving than such tenant may owe at the time of the commencement
of said work, or as may become due to the end of his or her tenancy,
provided that no owner, or occupier of a lot or lots in front of which
paving is laid shall be required to repave or repair said footways or side-
walks, in whole or in part, at his own expense oftener than once in five
years.