§11-48-8. Hearing upon objections as to proposed improvement; amendment, modification, rescission, etc., of ordinance or resolution; actions ratified and confirmed where prior to ordinance, resolution or hearing.

(a) At the meeting, to be held as provided for as specified in Section 11-48-6, or at a place and time to which the same may be adjourned, all persons whose property may be affected by the proposed improvement may appear in person or by attorney or by petition and object or protest against said improvement, the material to be used or the alternative types of material or any of them from which selection is later to be made, if any, and the manner of making the same, and said council shall consider such objection and protest and may confirm, amend, modify, or rescind the original ordinance or resolution.

But if objection to the proposed improvement is made by a majority in frontage of the property owners to be affected thereby when the proposed improvement is to be assessed against the property fronting or abutting any street, avenue, or alley or by a majority in area of the property owners when the proposed improvement is to be assessed against the property comprising a sewerage, drainage, or other improvement district, the improvement shall not take place unless ordered by a two-thirds vote of those elected to the council.

(b) In all cases where any city or town has undertaken a program of public improvements, the cost of which was or is to be assessed in whole or in part against the property drained, served, or benefited by such improvements, the action of such city or town in receiving construction bids, awarding and executing a construction contract or contracts pursuant to such bids, and commencing performance thereunder prior to the adoption of the improvement ordinance or resolution and prior to the holding of the protest meeting required by subsection (a) is hereby ratified and confirmed, and the actions of such cities or towns in proceeding with the program of public improvements and assessing the cost thereof or any part of such cost against the property drained, served, or benefited by the improvements, which costs are determined in part by reference to the amounts paid under any such contract or contracts, are hereby ratified and confirmed; provided that, before any such assessments are or were made final the appropriate improvement ordinance or resolution was adopted and the required protest meeting or hearing was convened, held, and conducted in the manner required by law.

This subsection shall not apply to any such contract, the validity of which has been, prior to the adoption hereof, successfully challenged in a court of competent jurisdiction by judgment entered prior to July 30, 1979, or to any contract when litigation relating to any such contract is pending on July 30, 1979.

(Code 1907, §1364; Code 1923, §2179; Acts 1927, No. 639, p. 753; Code 1940, T. 37, §518; Acts 1979, No. 79-463, p. 846.)