boroughs. The assessment, which shall be levied in any proceeding, upon the real property acquired in addition to that required for the improvement, shall not in the case of any parcel assessed exceed onehalf the fair value thereof. Interest from the date of the vesting of title to the date of the final decree of the court or to the date of the final report of the commissioners, as the case may be, on the sum or sums determined as damages due to the acquisition of the real property required for the improvement, as hereinbefore provided, shall be included in and stated as a part of such damages due to the acquisition of title to the real property required for the improvement. Nothing in this section contained shall be construed as authorizing the awarding to an owner, part of whose real property is taken for the improvement, and the remainder or a portion of the remainder of whose real property is taken as additional lands, any greater amount of compensation than such owner shall be entitled to, by reason of the taking of his real property for the improvement and as additional lands, considered together as one parcel. The provisions of section nine hundred and seventy-a and of this section shall be construed as supplementing and extending the effect of the provisions of the other sections of this title so as to provide for the acquisition of title to additional lands in connection with an improvement and for the levying of assessments for benefit in such proceedings and nothing in section nine hundred and seventy-a or in this section contained shall be construed as limiting the effect of the provisions of the other sections of this title in their application to the acquisition of title to real property required for an improvement when acquired in a proceeding in which additional lands shall or shall not be acquired or to the levying of assessments for benefit in such proceedings, except as the provisions of the other sections of this title are in section nine hundred and seventy-a and in this section expressly so limited in their application.

No. 12. RHODE ISLAND, ACT PASSED UNDER CONSTITUTIONAL

AMENDMENT ADOPTED 1916 70

SEC. I. Whenever any public highway in the city of Providence shall be laid out . . . the city of Providence may acquire or take in fee more land and property than is needed for actual construction in the establishing, laying out, widening, extending or relocating of such public highway or street: Provided, however, that the additional land and property so authorized to be acquired or taken shall be no more in extent than would be sufficient to form suitable building sites abutting on such public highway or street; and provided, further, that the provisions of this act shall apply only in the particular instances in which the city council of said city shall by special vote so provide.

"Being 1917, ch. 1560.

Additional land as

taken, but not used, how disposed of.

*SEC. 2-3. Procedural.

SEC. 4. After so much of the land and property has been appropriated for such public highway or street as is needed therefor, the additional land and property so taken in fee may be held and improved by said city of Providence for any public purpose or purposes, or, by resolution of said city council, may be sold or leased for value with or without suitable restrictions, and in case of any such sale or lease the person or persons from whom such additional land and property was taken shall have the first right to purchase or lease the same upon such terms and conditions as said city council is willing to sell or lease the same.

SEC. 5. This act shall take effect upon its passage.

*Summarized.

CHAPTER IV

PUBLIC UTILITIES—THE WATER FRONT

Definitions. A public utility is, in law, a service rendered the general public of such a nature and importance as to constitute it a common necessity or general convenience, the provision of which cannot with safety be left to the unrestrained enterprise of private individuals. The power to supply such services is therefore granted individuals substantially under conditions of regulated monopoly, or, if need be, they are performed by the government itself. In practice the expression is used to denote a service, such as the furnishing of water, gas, electricity, heat, power, transportation, etc. In the decision of the question which services shall be held to be public utilities, historical considerations have great influence; but of recent years present conditions have caused additions to the list of such utilities to be made. Private corporations rendering such services are often referred to as public utility corporations, and, by reason of the public service performed by them, are considered quasi-public and granted certain public powers, such as eminent domain.

Transportation.—Most, if not all, of the public utilities have their place in the city plan. For this reason the granting of the franchises to public utility corporations and their regulation should be carefully considered. Of most importance among these utilities—indeed probably the greatest single influence of any kind on the city plan—is transportation, the only utility that must precede the substantial growth in population of any locality, important as it is that the others should follow as speedily as possible. The planning problems with relation to transportation and transportation corporations are typical

of those arising with regard to these other utilities, and will be treated here as illustrative of them all.1

Transportation makes and changes the character of streets and districts and determines the distribution of population, bringing, if efficient, distant parts of the city, for all practical purposes, near the center, or if inefficient, keeping nearby parts in effect at a distance from that center. Not only routes, amount, speed and comfort of service, but rates of fare, make the virtual city plan. It has always been assumed that only a small proportion of the population of a city will live beyond the range of a five-cent fare. Expensive subways are profitable only where there are multiple dwellings, and soon cause the private house along their route to be replaced by the tenement. In these and countless other ways which are well recognized by city planners and transport experts, transportation builds the city. If uncontrolled, the planning of construction for this purpose is done by many irresponsible, conflicting agencies in their own interest. If the public interest is to prevail, the public must regulate and control these agencies, or itself undertake to perform the services they render.

Methods of Public Control.-The public authorities may exercise control over public service corporations in several ways-first, by the terms of the franchises granted the promoters, such as the right to be a public service corporation, the conditions in accordance with which that corporation is allowed to use the public streets, and the concessions demanded of the corporation in return for receiving additional rights; second, by the amendment of the charter, if the right to amend it is reserved; third, by regulating rates and service, under the police power, which the public may do in spite of the fact that the charter is a contract and even if there is no reservation of the right of amendment, alteration, or repeal; fourth, by granting a charter to a competing corporation, by itself com

1 See in this connection "Unification of Railroad Lines and Service in Cities," being a statement of principles drawn up by a Committee of the National Conference on City Planning for presentation to the conference held April, 1920; published in its proceedings, p. 56 and in the National Municipal Review, June, 1920, p. 351, under the title, "Railroads in a Sound City Plan."

peting, or by threatening to take one or the other of these courses; fifth, by condemning the rights and property of the corporation and itself furnishing the utility.

The Power to Grant and Change the Charter.-The charter giving individuals the right to be a corporation is granted by the state. Transportation enterprises, like most other utilities, by reason of the amount of capital involved and the liabilities incurred, are virtually forced to incorporate and thus subject themselves to a greater degree of public control than individuals. The charter also confers upon the corporation the privilege of engaging in the business of furnishing a particular utility in a given locality, and includes the conditions in accordance with which the business must be transacted, states the duration of the franchise, and the terms, if any, under which the public may take over the rights and property of the corporation. The grant of additional privileges also comes from the state, and in return for them any demands which seem necessary may be made upon the corporation. Like all large enterprises, transportation companies, with changing business conditions, are constantly in need of legislative assistance in the way of new authority. Thus they may need to take additional property by eminent domain, change their motive power, or their routes. The public may make these favors conditional on extensions or improvements of service. It is the state also which possesses the power to amend the charter, if such power exists. A charter, under our law, has been held to be a contract the provisions of which are subject to the police power but cannot be altered, nor can the charter be revoked, unless these rights are reserved. This was early decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in the famous Dartmouth College case. The decision is now generally regarded as unfortunate and its effect has been in large part counteracted by statutes, now universal, making all charters subsequently issued subject to alteration, amendment and repeal. These

3

Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 4 Wheaton (U. S.) 518 (1819). 'The device was suggested in one of the opinions in the case. The statutes often make the acceptance of any amendment of the charter by the corporation an agreement that the charter itself shall thereafter be subject to amendment, alteration and repeal. Amendments are also subject to these rights.