Sec. 10. (a) If any union railway company in carrying out the powers granted by this chapter considers it necessary that any part of a street, avenue, or alley in a town or city in which the union railway is situated should be vacated, it is lawful for the executive and legislative body of the town, or the legislative body of the city, as the case may be, to vacate any part of any street, avenue, or alley of the town or city for the purposes of this chapter.

(b) As a basis of the vacation, the union railway company shall present to and file with the proper municipal body or bodies of the town or city its petition, setting forth a description of the part of the street, avenue, or alley proposed to be vacated, and the purpose for which the ground is proposed to be used. There must be appended to the petition, as a part of the basis of the vacation, the written consent to the granting of the prayer of such petition of the owners in fee simple of more than one-half (1/2) of the real estate fronting on both sides of the street or alley, which, or part of which, is proposed to be vacated, estimated by the frontage in feet upon the street or alley, commencing at a line drawn across the street or alley equidistant from the termini of that portion of the street or alley proposed to be vacated, and extending along the street or alley from the line one thousand five hundred (1,500) feet in each direction, unless the street, avenue, or alley is not continuous in either direction from the line one thousand five hundred (1,500) feet, in which case, the consent of owners shall only be required for the distance that it is continuous.

(c) Before granting the prayer of the petition, the municipal body or bodies shall ascertain and determine that the consent of the owners of the requisite number of front feet has been obtained and the finding shall be made a matter of record, and is conclusive of the facts so found in all collateral proceedings.

(d) Before the petition is presented, twenty (20) days notice shall be given by the union railway company, by publication, by three (3) insertions in two (2) newspapers of general circulation printed and published in the town or city in which the union railway may be situated, setting forth that on a day, to be named in the notice, or at the next meeting thereafter of the municipal body or bodies, a petition for the vacation of the portion of the street or alley in question, describing it, will be presented to the municipal body or bodies for action.

Formerly: Acts 1885, c.20, s.10. As amended by P.L.62-1984, SEC.52; P.L.8-1989, SEC.50; P.L.136-2018, SEC.90.