Chap. 26.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 1488 of the code,in relation
to condemnation of land for school-houses.

Approved January 11, 1894.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
fourteen hundred and eighty-eight of the Code of Virginia be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows: If, in the judg-
ment of such school trustees, the public interests demand that a
echool-house be located on a particular spot, and no equitable ar-
rangement for its purchase prove to be practicable, the board of
trustees shall be authorized, and it shall be its duty, to cause the
desired parcel of land to be surveyed by the county or other compe-
tent surveyor, and a plat of the same to be filed, together with a
general statement of the case, with the clerk of the county court;
and thereupon, on application of the district school trustees the
same proceedings shall be bad as are prescribed to enable a com-
pany, county or town to take land without the owner’s consent by
section ten hundred and seventy-four and the sections following ta
ten hundred and eighty-four, inclusive: provided that no parcel of
land thus condemned shall exceed forty square poles in acity, eighty
square poles in a town or five acres in the country: provided, further,
that no dwelling, yard, garden or orchard shall be invaded, nor in
an unincorporated town any space within one hundred feet of a
dwelling, nor in the country any space within four hundred vards of
a@ mansion house, without the consent of the owner: provided, fur-
ther, that in the county of Henrico the law shall be that no vard,
garden or orchard shall be invaded, nor any space within one hun-
dred yards of a mansion house without consent of the owner. If the
land condemned, lying in a county outside of acity or town, shall
cease to be used for the purpose aforesaid for five years continuously,
the title thereto shall revert to the original owner, his heirs or as-
signs. |
2. This act shall be in force from its passage.