Subtitle 21 – Streets, Bridges, and Highways

The Legislature hereby finds, determines and declares that this subheading is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety, and for the promotion of the general welfare.

For the purposes of this subheading, a controlled-access facility is defined as a highway or street especially designed for through traffic, and over, from, or to which owners or occupants of abutting land or other persons have no right or easement or only a controlled right or easement of access, light, air, or view by reason of the fact that their property abuts upon such controlled-access facility or for any other reason. Such highways or streets may be freeways open to use by all customary forms of street and highway traffic; or they may be parkways from which trucks, buses and other commercial vehicles shall be excluded.

The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, acting alone or in cooperation with any Federal, State, or local agency having authority to participate in the construction and maintenance of highways, is hereby authorized to plan, designate, establish, regulate, vacate, alter, improve, maintain and provide controlled-access facilities for public use wherever the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore is of the opinion that traffic conditions, present or future, will justify such special facilities.

The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, in addition to the specific powers granted in this subheading, shall also have and may exercise, relative to controlled-access facilities, any and all additional authority now or hereafter vested in it relative to highways or streets within its jurisdiction. Said Mayor and City Council of Baltimore may regulate, restrict, or prohibit the use of such controlled-access facilities by the various classes of vehicles or traffic in a manner consistent with <cite data-path="21|§21-3">Section 21-3</cite> <em>{sic}</em>.

The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore is authorized to so design any controlled-access facility and to so regulate, restrict, or prohibit access as to best serve the traffic for which such facility is intended. In this connection the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore is authorized to divide and separate any controlled-access facility into separate roadways by the construction of raised curbings, dividing sections or other physical separations, or by designating such separate roadways by signs, markers, stripes, and the proper lane for such traffic by appropriate signs, markers, stripes and other devices.

No person shall have any right of ingress or egress to, from, or across controlled-access facilities to or from abutting lands, except at such designated points at which access may be permitted, upon such terms and conditions as may be specified from time to time.

For the purposes of this subheading, the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore may acquire private or public property and property rights for controlled-access facilities and service roads, including rights of access, air, view, and light, by gift, devise, purchase, or condemnation in the same manner as the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore is now or hereafter may be authorized by law to acquire such properly or property rights in connection with highways and streets within Baltimore City. All property rights and interests acquired under the provisions of this subheading shall be in fee simple except where the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore may deem other interests sufficient.

In connection with the acquisition of property or property rights for any controlled-access facility or portion thereof, or service road in connection therewith, the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore may acquire an entire lot, block, or tract of land, if, by so doing, the interest of the public will be best served, even though said entire lot, block or tract is not immediately needed for the right-of-way proper.

Court proceedings necessary to acquire property or property rights for purposes of this subheading shall take precedence over all other causes not involving the public interest in all courts, to the end that the provisions of controlled-access facilities may be expedited.

The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore may designate and establish controlled-access highways as new and additional facilities or may designate and establish an existing street or highway as included within a controlled-access facility.

The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore shall have authority to provide for the elimination of intersections at grade of controlled-access facilities with existing streets, by grade separation or service road, or by closing off such roads and streets at the right-of-way boundary line of such controlled-access facility; and after the establishment of any controlled-access facility, no highway or street which is not part of said facility shall intersect the same at grade. No city, street, or other public way shall be opened into or connected with any such controlled-access facility without the consent and previous approval of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. Such consent and approval shall be given only if the public interest shall be served thereby.

The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore is authorized to enter into agreements with the federal government, and/or with the State of Maryland respecting the financing, planning, establishment, improvement, maintenance, use, regulation or vacation of controlled-access facilities or other public ways in Baltimore City to facilitate the purposes of this subheading.

In connection with the development of any controlled-access facility, the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore is authorized to plan, designate, establish, use, regulate, alter, improve, maintain, and vacate local service roads and streets or to designate as local service roads and streets any existing road or street, and to exercise jurisdiction over service roads in the same manner as is authorized over controlled-access facilities under the terms of this subheading, if, in its opinion, such local service roads and streets are necessary or desirable. Such local service roads or streets shall be of appropriate design, and shall be separated from the controlled-access facility proper by means of all devices designated as necessary or desirable by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore.

It is unlawful for any person

If any section, provision, or clause of this subheading shall be declared invalid or inapplicable to any person or circumstance such invalidity or inapplicability shall not be construed to affect the portions not so held or persons or circumstances not so affected.

All laws or portions of laws inconsistent with the policy and provisions of this subheading are hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency in its application to controlled-access facilities provided for in this subheading.

Whenever any property shall have been condemned in any form or proceeding for the use of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, and in consequence of infancy, insanity or absence from the City of any person or persons entitled to receive any money awarded in any such proceedings, conflicting claims, refusal to accept, or any other cause, such money cannot be safely and reasonably paid to any person or persons, it shall be lawful for the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore to file a bill or petition in any Court of Equity in the City or county where the property is condemned, or any portion thereof, lies, and whenever such Court shall be satisfied that, for any of the reasons aforesaid, that said Mayor and City Council of Baltimore should be permitted to pay the said money into such Court, it shall pass such decree as it shall deem proper, and the payment of any money into Court under any such decree or order shall be considered in all respects equivalent to a tender thereof to any person or persons entitled to such money, and who may be made a party or parties to such proceeding, and upon making such payment, the said Mayor and City Council of Baltimore shall be thereby released from all further liability for the money awarded as aforesaid to any person or persons who may be made a party or parties to such proceeding as aforesaid, and in all cases when one or more persons is or are entitled to an estate for life or years, or an estate tail fee simple, conditional, base or qualified fee, or any other particular, limited or conditional estate in property condemned as aforesaid, and any person or persons is or are entitled to a remainder or remainders, vested or contingent, or an executory devise or devises, or any other interest, vested or contingent, in the same property, if all persons in being who would be entitled to the said property if the contingency had happened at the date of the filing of the aforesaid bill or petition, shall be made parties to such proceeding, the payment into Court of the money awarded for such property shall bind all persons, whether in being or not, who claim or may claim any interest in the said property under any of the parties to the said cause, or under any person from whom any of the parties thereto claim or from or under or by the original deed or will by which such particular, limited or conditional estates with remainders or executory devises were created, and the said Mayor and City Council of Baltimore shall, upon making such payment, be thereby released from all further liability for the money awarded as aforesaid.

Before they pass any ordinance under Article Two of <cite data-doc="City of Baltimore, Md., Charter">the Charter of Baltimore City</cite> (1964 Revision), paragraph “Streets, Bridges and Highways”, relating to the laying out, opening, extending, widening, straightening, or closing up, in whole or in part, of any street, square, lane or alley within Baltimore City, notice shall be given by advertisement published twice a week for two consecutive weeks, in two of the daily newspapers in the City, that application shall be made for the passage of the ordinance. The notice shall set forth clearly, in the case of laying out, opening or extending any street, square, lane or alley, the length or width of the street, square, lane or alley, or part thereof to be laid out, opened or extended, and, in the case of widening or straightening shall set forth clearly both the present and the intended width, and also the length of any street, lane or alley or part thereof intended to be widened or straightened, and in case of closing shall set forth clearly the length and width of the street, lane or alley or any part thereof, intended to be closed.

Notice shall also be given by filing, with the Department of Public Works on or before the first day of the publication, a map on the scale not smaller than 50 feet to the inch, prepared by some competent surveyor, whose name shall be signed to the same, which, in case of laying out, opening, extending, widening or straightening, shall show the course and the lines of the projected improvement, and also the lots and buildings thereon which shall be taken or destroyed, in whole or in part, and which, in the case of closing shall show the street, lane or alley, or part thereof, intended to be closed, and also the abutting lots and improvements thereon. The Director of the Department of Public Works shall endorse on the map his name, with the date of it being filed in his office, and keep the map where the public may have access to it.

Whenever the map may be needed for the purpose of being shown at any meeting of the City Council, or of any committee thereof, he may, on the written order or request of the President of the City Council, or of the chairman of such committee, and, on obtaining his receipt therefore, allow the map to be taken from his office for that purpose, to be returned on the following day.

At any time before the final passage of the ordinance, the map and the ordinance may be amended if the amendment does not substantially depart from the published notice, so as to substantially affect parties who would not be warned by the notice.

Before the Department of Public Works shall proceed under Sections <cite data-path="21|§21-12">21-12</cite> and <cite data-path="21|§21-13">21-13</cite> to perform its duty, it shall give notice in a least two of the daily newspapers in the City of Baltimore of the object of the ordinance under which it proposes to act, at least ten days before the time of the first meeting to execute the same.

Whenever the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore provides, by ordinance, for the laying out, opening, extending, widening or straightening of any highway, street, square, lane or alley in Baltimore City, such ordinance may provide that the Department of Public Works shall proceed to acquire the property necessary, in accordance with Sections <cite data-doc="City of Baltimore, Md., Charter" data-path="VII|§44A">44A</cite>, <cite data-doc="City of Baltimore, Md., Charter" data-path="VII|§44B">44B</cite>, <cite data-doc="City of Baltimore, Md., Charter" data-path="VII|§44C">44C</cite>, and <cite data-doc="City of Baltimore, Md., Charter" data-path="VII|§44D">44D</cite> of <cite data-doc="City of Baltimore, Md., Charter" data-path="VII">Article VII of the Charter of Baltimore City</cite> (1964 Revision) as amended <em>{Article VII, §§ 43 to 46 of City Charter (1996 Edition)}</em>, and Sections <cite data-doc="City of Baltimore, Md., Code" data-path="|26|§56">56</cite> through <cite data-doc="City of Baltimore, Md., Code" data-path="|26|§70">70</cite> of <cite data-doc="City of Baltimore, Md., Code" data-path="|26">Article 26</cite> of the Baltimore City Code as amended <em>{Article 26, <cite data-path="3">Subtitle 3</cite> of City Code (Edition 2000}</em>; or the ordinance may provide that the property necessary to be acquired for such laying out, opening, extending, widening or straightening, may be acquired by proceedings in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, under Article - <cite data-doc="Md. Code" data-path="grp">Real Property, Title 12 of the Annotated Code of Maryland</cite>, and that, after the damages to be awarded shall have been ascertained by such proceedings, then the Department of Public Works may proceed to assess the benefits for the laying out, opening, extending, widening or straightening, in the same manner as if the damages had been assessed by it under Sections <cite data-doc="City of Baltimore, Md., Code" data-path="|26|§60">60</cite>, <cite data-doc="City of Baltimore, Md., Code" data-path="|26|§61">61</cite>, and <cite data-doc="City of Baltimore, Md., Code" data-path="|26|§62">62</cite> of <cite data-doc="City of Baltimore, Md., Code" data-path="|26">Article 26</cite> of the Baltimore City Code (1976 Edition) as amended <em>{Article 26, §§ <cite data-path="3|§3-5">3-5</cite> to <cite data-path="3|§3-10">3-10</cite> of City Code (Edition 2000)}</em>, and it shall state in the report the amount of damages assessed by the proceedings in Court to the various owners, and the expenses of the court proceedings, and its own proceedings.

Before any such benefits and damages are assessed, there shall be filed with the Department of Public Works, a profile map or plat showing the grade of the proposed highway, street, square, lane, cul-de-sac, or alley with respect to the abutting property, which map or plat shall be included by the Department of Public Works, in the return of its proceedings.

<cite data-path="21|§21-15">Section 21-15</cite> to 21-17 shall not restrict or limit the present powers and authority vested in the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, to condemn property situate in Baltimore City for public use.

A tenant for ninety-nine years, or for ninety-nine years, renewable forever, or the executor or administrator of such tenant, or the guardian of an infant owner, or a mortgagee in possession, shall be deemed and taken as an owner for the purposes of any application to the Mayor and City Council authorized by this subdivision of <cite>this article</cite>; and the application of any such person shall bind the property so represented for any assessment or tax made under an ordinance passed in pursuance of the provisions of this subdivision of <cite>this article</cite>.

Where real estate within the said City has been or may be divided according to law among heirs, legatees, joint tenants or tenants in common, entitled to the same; and such division calls for any of the streets, lanes or alleys or any part thereof surveyed and laid off under the Act of 1817, Chapter 148, or reserves of any of the streets, lanes or alleys, or any part thereof, as open, and divides such estate with reference thereto, the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore may, on application of one or more persons interested in the ground to be taken on such application, adopt and sanction by ordinance the principle under which such division was had, and open any of the said streets, lanes or alleys, or any parts thereof, in the said division reserved or recognized; provided, at least one week’s notice in the newspapers of said City (the cost of the advertisement to be paid by the applicants), be given of such application before any such ordinance shall pass.

All the streets, lanes, or alleys opened in the manner directed in <cite data-path="21|§21-20">Section 21-20</cite> shall be public highways, and be subject to the laws, regulations and ordinances applicable to public streets, lanes or alleys, or parts thereof, in said City.

They may, on application of the owners of a majority of feet in front of any private wharf, dock, street, lane or alley, cause the same to be paved, cleaned out, mended or otherwise repaved or kept in good condition or repair, and may impose upon and collect from all the proprietors of the property so to be cleaned out or repaired, a tax sufficient in amount to defray the expenses thereof, which shall be assessed upon the proprietors in proportion to the number of feet held by them, respectively, in front or length, and shall be collected by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore as taxes levied for paving public streets.

Whenever the Commissioner of Health shall certify in writing to the Mayor that it is necessary for the health of the City to alter the grade of any street, lane or alley on low or made ground, the Mayor shall issue his order to the City Engineer, who shall thereupon call upon the several property holders on such street, lane or alley, and procure from them their assent in writing to such alteration; and if any property holder shall refuse to permit the same to be graded, and shall require damages therefor, and cannot agree with the Highways Engineer as to the amount of damages, or should there be any legal disability on the part of those owning property on such street, lane or alley, a judge of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, on application of the corporation, shall appoint three disinterested persons to assess such damages, who shall return on oath their award to said Court, and the same shall be confirmed by the Court unless case to the contrary be shown; in which case the Court shall at the first term thereafter decide finally thereon; and when the damages so assessed or agreed upon shall be paid by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore to the persons so assessed, and legally entitled to receive the same, the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore may proceed to regrade and pave the said street, lane or alley.

The President, directors and companies of the different turnpike companies owning roads running into the City of Baltimore, may cede to said City such parts of said roads as lie within the corporate limits of said City; and the same, when ceded, shall be in all respects subject to the same regulations as unpaved public streets.

The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore is hereby authorized and empowered to accept from the owners thereof, a deed of the land lying in the bed of Eutaw Place extended, between North Avenue on the southeast and Druid Hill Park on the northwest, in consideration of an agreement on the part of said grantee, to be incorporated therein, that no street car or other railroad tracks shall at any time thereafter be located or placed on any part thereof.

Upon the execution of said deed and acceptance thereof by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore embodying said contract prohibiting the locating or placing of car tracks upon any part of the land so to be granted, the said contract shall be and is hereby declared to be forever thereafter inviolable; provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall prevent the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore from authorizing by ordinance the location or construction of car tracks on such part of the bed of said street as are contained within the limits of intersecting or cross streets that are now or may hereafter be provided for by ordinance of said Mayor and City Council of Baltimore.

No avenues, streets or alleys within the territory annexed to the City of Baltimore by the Act of 1888, Chapter 98, shall hereafter be opened, established or condemned, nor shall the dedication of any avenue, street or alley in said territory be hereafter accepted by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore unless the same shall be approved in writing by the Topographical Survey Commission consisting of the Mayor, Comptroller and Register of the City of Baltimore <em>{Department of Public Works}</em>, or unless the said avenues, streets or alleys be so opened, established, condemned or dedicated that the lines and grades thereof shall conform to the general plan of streets for the annex as adopted under Ordinance No. 129, approved December 3^rd, 1898, or as said plan shall be amended in accordance with the provisions of <cite data-path="21|§21-27">this section</cite>, that is to say: with the approval of the aforesaid Topographical Survey Commission, the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore may by ordinance, from time to time and in any manner, alter or amend the said general plan of streets, and the said Mayor and City Council of Baltimore may thereafter by ordinance open, establish or condemn, or the Mayor of Baltimore City may receive a deed for any avenue, street or alley laid down on the said general plan of streets as amended, or if any such avenue, street or alley shall be dedicated the same may thereafter be accepted; said Topographical Survey Commission is hereby authorized to make such rules and regulations regarding surveys, plats or plans relating to the location of avenues, streets or alleys as they may deem proper from time to time.

Every private street, lane, alley or way in the City of Baltimore which shall be hereafter laid out and opened, and which for a period of one year shall connect with, open into, or lead to or from any public street, lane, alley or way of said City, and passage between which said private street, lane, alley or way and said public street, lane, alley or way shall not be barred or obstructed by a wall, fence or similar structure erected along the dividing line between them, either without a gate or gates therein, or with a gate or gates, which shall be kept closed at all time except when in actual use, shall be conclusively presumed to have been dedicated by the owner or owners thereof to public use as public highways, and may, at any time thereafter be accepted as public highways, either by ordinance of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore or in any other manner in which a dedication of land to public use made in any other way be accepted.

The preceding provisions of <cite data-path="21|§21-28">this section</cite> shall not apply to any private streets, lane, alleys or ways laid out after the passage of this amended Act, upon plans approved by the Topographical Survey Commission of Baltimore City <em>{Department of Public Works}</em>, whose owner or owners shall declare them to be private by placing and maintaining a sign or signs at or near the junction or junctions of such private streets, lanes, alleys or ways with such public streets, lanes, alleys or ways on which sign or signs shall be marked with the words “Private Way”, provided and so long as such owner or owners do not grant in such private streets, lanes, alleys or ways, for a longer period than twenty-five years, any franchise, right or easement for a railway or for pipe or conduits for supplying electricity, gas, water or steam or for any other use that would be in the nature of a public service franchise.

Nothing herein contained shall affect any right acquired by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City under said Act of 1908, Chapter 582, prior to April 11, 1912.

Every private street, lane, alley or way now existing in the City of Baltimore, which for a period of one year from April 8, 1908, shall connect with, open into, or lead to or from any public street, lane, alley or way of said City, and passage between which said private street, lane, alley or way, and said public street, lane, alley or way shall not be barred or obstructed by a wall, fence or similar structure erected along the dividing line between them, either without a gate or gates therein, or with a gate or gates which shall be kept closed at all times except when in actual use, shall be conclusively presumed to have been dedicated by the owner or owners thereof to public use as public highways, and may, at any time thereafter, be accepted as public highways, either by ordinance of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore or in any other manner in which a dedication of land to public use made in any other way, may be accepted.

All streets, avenues or alleys lying in that portion of Baltimore City, formerly constituting a portion of Baltimore County, and in pursuance of the Act of the General Assembly of Maryland of 1888, Chapter 98, recently annexed to the said City of Baltimore, which has prior to such annexation become streets, avenues or alleys in Baltimore County, whether by deed or dedication, shall be held for all purposes to validly constitute streets, avenues or alleys of Baltimore City, in all respects as if the same had been legally condemned as such by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore.

The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore is hereby authorized to enter into an agreement with the United Railways and Electric Company of Baltimore <em>{&gt;Baltimore Transit Company &gt; Mass Transit Administration}</em>, or any person, company or corporation, for the carriage and disposal from proper places that may be agreed upon for transportation on the cars of said Company for final disposition at proper places situated on or near its system of tracks in this State of such street sweepings, dirt, ashes and garbage as may be collected by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, or its duly constituted employees and agents and delivered to said United Railways and Electric Company of Baltimore for final transportation at such places as may be agreed upon, on such terms and conditions as may be agreed upon between the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, and the United Railways and Electric Company of Baltimore or any person, company or corporation; and should the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore by ordinance provide for the collection of street dirt, sweepings, garbage and ashes by other persons than the duly constituted officers or employees of said City of Baltimore, then said other person or persons shall have the same right to enter into an agreement for the final transportation of said street sweepings, dirt, garbage and ashes as mentioned aforesaid; provided, however, that nothing in <cite data-path="21|§21-32">this section</cite> shall be construed to confer any right upon the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore to contract with said United Railways and Electric Company of Baltimore, or any person, company or corporation, for the collection of street sweepings, ashes and garbage from the streets, lanes, alleys and other ways of the said City of Baltimore, but shall simply apply to the final transportation and disposal of the said street sweepings, dirt, garbage and ashes from certain specified places to the final disposition as heretofore mentioned; provided, further, that the cars, boxes, bins, houses or receptacles in which said street sweepings, dirt, garbage and ashes are deposited and retained awaiting final disposition, and the cars, boxes, bins, or other receptacles in which said street sweepings, dirt, garbage and ashes may, should or are to be transported from said place of deposit to the place of final disposition shall be closed and covered in such manner as may be provided for by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, and shall only be transported, conveyed and carried from said places of deposit to the final disposition through the streets of said City only between the hours of one and five o’clock a.m.