The City Council, in addition to the corporate powers heretofore granted, is hereby authorized and empowered to acquire land and property of every kind, including property used or held for public or quasi-public purposes, by purchase, lease, gift, devise, condemnation or any other legal means for use and operation by the City as single- or multiple-deck off-street parking facilities for the storage and parking of vehicles and, in connection therewith, to raze existing buildings on any property so acquired and to improve, maintain and operate any such property and construct facilities thereon for the parking of automobiles or other vehicles by the general public and to install meters thereon and to make such rules and regulations governing such parking and the conduct of such parking lots, including the making, fixing and collection of charges for the use of the same, as the City Council may, by ordinance, decide. For the purpose of exercising the powers herein conferred, the City Council is authorized to proceed to acquire land and property of every kind required for any project covered by the provisions hereof, including property used or held for public or quasi-public purposes, by condemnation whenever it cannot agree with the owner thereof for the purchase of the same, and such condemnation proceedings shall be conducted in the manner provided by the Annotated Code of Maryland entitled "Eminent Domain," and all the rights, powers and privileges conferred by said statute shall be deemed applicable to and vested in the City Council. No such land or property taken by the City by condemnation for any of the aforesaid purposes shall be taken without just compensation, as agreed upon between the parties or awarded by a jury, being first paid or tendered to the party entitled to such compensation. All land or property needed or taken by the exercise of the power of eminent domain by the City Council for any of the aforementioned purposes is hereby declared to be needed or taken for a public use. Any property so operated as an off-street parking facility shall be public property, and the City may provide, by ordinance for the operation of said off-street parking facility and may enforce all such ordinances through the established Police Department of said city.
[Amended 11-16-1981 by HR No. 10-81]
The City Council is hereby authorized to fix and to revise, from time to time, rates, rentals or charges for the use of its off-street parking facilities and to charge and collect the same and to contract with any person, partnership, association or corporation desiring the use of any facility or facilities provided under this Article and to fix the terms, conditions and rates of charges for such use. Whenever there are any bonds or certificates of indebtedness outstanding, all funds collected from the operation of the off-street parking facilities provided for in this Article must be deposited in the Parking Meter Fund account, to be used only for the purpose of paying the costs of the acquisition, planning, construction, operation and maintenance of the off-street parking facilities and payment, when due, of the interest and principal of all bonds and/or certificates of indebtedness maturing in each such fiscal year issued under the provisions of this Article.
In the event that the funds collected from the operation of the off-street parking facilities in any fiscal year shall prove insufficient for the purposes set forth in Section C10-2 of this Charter, then and in that event only the City Council in the succeeding fiscal year is hereby authorized, empowered and directed to levy and cause to be collected a special tax in the nature of an ad valorem tax in an amount at a rate sufficient to make up any such deficiency. The ad valorem tax rate as determined shall be levied upon the assessed value of all real estate, including both the value of improvements and the value of the land which is zoned and/or used for commercial, industrial or general business use within the corporate limits of the City.
The special taxes hereinabove authorized, if levied, shall be collected and have the same priority rights, bear the same interest and penalties as the City taxes and shall constitute a lien upon all property assessed; provided, however, that before any assessment is levied hereunder, notice, in writing, of the proposed assessment shall be sent to all owners of property against which the assessment is proposed to be levied, naming in said notice a time and place when and at which said owners will be heard. Said notice must be mailed seven (7) days before the date set for the hearing and will be sufficient if addressed to the owner at the address as it appears on the tax records of the City. Any person aggrieved by the action of the City Council in making such levy shall have the right to appeal to the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, Maryland, provided that such appeal is taken within thirty (30) days next succeeding the day on which said levy is made.