The City shall have dominion, control and jurisdiction in, on, over and under its public streets, squares, avenues, alleys and highways, and to provide for the improvement of these, upon the initiative of the City Commission, or upon petition of property owners, as provided by paving, repaving, raising, grading, and draining openings, widening, narrowing or straightening, and by construction of sidewalks, and curbs or culverts, or other public improvements. The word "highway," as used here, shall include all streets, alleys, sidewalks, public places, avenues and squares in the City. The City shall have the power to assess the whole cost of sidewalks and curbs and not more than three-fourths of the cost of other street improvement work, except the cost to be paid owners of railroads and street railroads, against the owners of property abutting the highway or section thereof improved, and against the property, and to fix a lien against the property which shall be superior to all other liens and claims, except City, State and County and other taxes, and a charge of personal liability against owners of the property. The portion of the cost assessed against the owners of abutting property may be made payable in deferred installments, the last due not more than five (5) years from the completion of the improvements and with interest at a rate not exceeding eight (8) percent per annum. The assessments may include reasonable attorney's fees and cost of collection, if incurred, and the City Commission shall have power to fix the terms of payment, maturity and conditions of the assessments and of the assignable certificates provided for here.
The entire cost of making such improvements between or under the rails, tracks and switches or railroads or street railroads, occupying any highway or intersection improved, and for two (2) feet on the outside of said tracks, shall be paid by the owners, and secured by a lien assessed on the road beds, ties, tracks, franchise and other property of the owners, which lien shall be superior to all other liens, claims or interests in or upon the property, except City, State, and County or other taxes. The ordinance making the assessment shall provide the time and terms of payment and for the payment of interest, costs and attorney's fees as set out above.
No assessments shall be made against owners of abutting property or against railroads, or street railroads, or their property, until after a hearing for the owners, and lien holders or other interested parties, before the City Commission, with reasonable advance notice which shall consist of a general notice published at least three (3) times prior to the hearing in some newspaper of general circulation published in the City of Harlingen, the first publication to be at least ten (10) days before the date of hearing. The City Commission shall have authority to give other additional notice, but the published notice shall be sufficient and binding upon lien holders and other interested parties and owners.
At the hearing, owners and other interested parties shall have the right to contest the assessments, the legality or regularity of any proceeding with regard to the assessment, or the special benefits arising from the improvements.
No assessment shall be made against any owner of abutting property or his property in excess of special benefits thereto in enhanced value arising from the improvements.
All protests, contests and objections at the hearing shall be in writing, and the City Commission shall have power to hear evidence, summon witnesses and take testimony with reference to the matter at issue.
The assessments may be enforced, either by suit in any court having jurisdiction, brought by the City for the benefit of the holder and owner of the assessments or the certificates, or brought by the owner and holder, or by sale of the property assessed in the same manner, or as near as possible, as is prescribed for sale of real estate for municipal taxes.
The lien of the assessments herein mentioned shall relate back and take effect on all subsequent purchasers and creditors from the date of the ordinance or resolution ordering the improvement.
Subsection 1. The City Commission shall have power to cause to be issued, in the name and on behalf of the City, assignable certificates in writing, declaring the liability of owners and their property for the payment of assessments and to fix the terms and conditions of the certificates. If any of these certificates shall recite that the proceedings with reference to making such improvements have been in compliance with law, and that prerequisites to the fixing of the assessment lien against the property, and the personal liability of the owner, have been performed, such recitals shall be prima facie evidence of the facts, and no further proof shall be required in any court.
Subsection 2. Nothing contained here shall empower the City to fix a lien by assessment against any property exempt by law from sale under execution, but the owner of the exempt property shall nevertheless be personally liable for the pro rata portion of laid cost which would be assessed against the property were it not exempt, and this cost shall be assessed against the owner.
The fact that any improvement is omitted in front of an exempt property shall not invalidate the lien of assessment made against other property.
Subsection 3. In apportioning costs of improvements among owners of the abutting property, the City Commission shall act in accordance with the front foot rule, in proportion as the front feet of property of each owner abutting the highway to be improved is to the whole frontage. But if in particular cases the application of this rule would be unequal or unjust, the City Commission shall adopt a rule that shall effect substantial justice and equality, in view of special benefits received and burdens imposed.
Subsection 4. No error, mistake or informality in the ordinance of assessment or in any other step or proceeding prerequisite to the assessment shall invalidate it, but the City Commission shall at any time correct the error.
No error or mistake in describing any parcel of abutting property or the name of its owner shall invalidate an assessment, but it shall still have full force and be in effect against the premises and the real and true owner of the property.
Whenever, in the opinion of the City Commission, any error, mistake or invalidity exists in any proceeding with reference to improvements or assessments, it shall correct the error, mistake or invalidity and reassess said the correct property and the owners. Reassessments shall be made after a notice and hearing as provided here, and not in excess of benefits in enhanced value of the property assessed, and otherwise as near as possible in accordance with the provisions here with reference to original assessments. After a reassessment, the City shall have power to issue assignable certificates as evidence of the procedure which may be payable in deferred installments, the last maturing not over five (5) years from date of the reassessment, and the terms and conditions of the certificates shall as near as possible comply with the preceding provisions having reference to assignable certificates.
No reassessments shall be made unless proceedings for it are begun within three (3) years from the date of the original assessments, provided that if the validity of any assessment shall be involved in litigation, the period of time consumed with that shall not be considered in computing the three (3) years.
The City Commission shall have power to adopt rules, regulations, and ordinances consistent with this Charter for the purpose of carrying into effect every part of this section and its subsections, and to effect the assessments and reassessments.
Subsection 5. Whenever the owners of more than fifty (50) percent of the front feet of property abutting any highway or highway section which they desire improved, shall petition the City Commission in writing (which may be one or more separate petitions) and shall state the limits within which the work is to be done, the general description of it and the materials and methods or alternate materials and method with which it is desired the improvements shall be made. The signers of the petition shall agree in it to pay the several amounts which may be assessed against them respectively under the terms of the agreement, the petition shall be filed with the City Commission, and shall be examined by it and in its discretion approved or disapproved by resolution.
The approval of such petition by the City Commission shall be conclusive of its regularity and validity, and, if approved, the City Commission shall order the work done as nearly as possible with the materials and in accordance with the methods, or, if alternative materials or methods shall be set out in the petition, in accordance with some method and with some material or materials specified in it.
When the procedure is under this subsection, the City Commission shall make the improvements and assess and apportion the cost for them, after notice and hearing as provided for here, and shall take all steps and do all things in strict accordance with the provisions of this section. Provided that when the work is done pursuant to petition, the City shall pay the whole cost of improvement of intersections of other streets and alleys with the highways named to be improved, except the portion assessable against railroads and street railroads occupying the highway and intersection; the railroads and street railroads shall pay the whole cost of the improvements of the highway or portion that is between and under their rails and tracks and two (2) feet on the outside, which cost shall be assessed against owners and their property, and collected in the manner provided in this article. The owners of property abutting the highway or section to be improved shall pay the whole remaining cost of the improvements, and it shall be apportioned among them and assessed against them, and their property in the manner provided in this article.
Subsection 6. In any suit brought for the enforcement of an assessment, reassessment or personal liability, the allegation in the petition or other pleading that all proceedings with reference to making such improvements have been in compliance with the law and that all prerequisites to the fixing of the assessment lien upon the property assessed and the personal liability of the owner, or the insurance of the assignable certificates have been performed, shall be deemed a sufficient allegation of every proceeding required by law, the City Charter, or its ordinances with reference to such improvements or prerequisites to the fixing of the lien or liability and insurance of the certificates, and shall dispense with the necessity of pleading each of the preceding steps or prerequisites specifically, and shall in all courts be taken as if each of the steps, proceedings, or prerequisites had been alleged and set out in full.
Any property owner against whom or whose property an assessment or reassessment has been made shall have the right within twenty (20) days of the assessment to bring suit in any court having jurisdiction to set aside or correct the action or any proceeding related to it, on account of any error or invalidity occurring. But after that an owner, his heirs, assigns or successors shall be barred from any such action or any defense of invalidity in the proceedings or assessments in any action in which the action may be brought in question.
Subsection 7. All contracts for street improvements entered into by the City and not fully performed and all proceedings on the street improvements are hereby ratified, confirmed and validated, and all powers enjoyed by the City that it was empowered to provide for the execution of the contracts, and for the assessment of any portion of the cost of the improvements against owners of property abutting them, and their property, or against the owners of railroads and street railroads and their property, and also all powers of the City for the enforcement of the assessments and collections of them, are extended here and preserved in full force for the purpose of making the assessments and enforcing said existing contracts, and it shall be the duty of the City Commission to pass all ordinances and resolutions and take all steps necessary or proper to fully execute the contracts or validate or ratify them and to make and enforce the assessments.
Subsection 8. The City Commission, in carrying out and exercising the powers granted by this section and its subsections, may proceed by resolution, except that no assessment or reassessment shall be finally levied other than by ordinance.
All the powers granted by this section and its subsections, when adopted, shall be applicable to the enforcement of the existing contracts and to the making and enforcement of the assessments there to be made against owners of abutting property, and their property, and against the owners of railroads and street railroads and their property, and to the issuance of assignable certificates as provided here; and the City Commission shall fully exercise the powers to make and enforce the assessments, and to issue the certificates, under and in accordance with terms of this section and its subsections, when adopted.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
Said City shall have the power to provide for the construction, improvement or repair of any sidewalk or the construction of any curb, by penal ordinance, and to declare defective sidewalks to be a public nuisance.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power to open, extend, straighten and widen any public street, avenue, boulevard or alley and for the purpose to acquire the necessary land, by purchase or condemnation, and to provide that the cost of improving a street, avenue, boulevard or alley by opening, extending, straightening, or widening the same shall be paid by the owners of property lying in the territory of the improvement to the extent they are especially benefited by it, and to provide that the cost shall be charged by special assessment against the owners and their property for the amount due by them, and three (3) Special Commissioners shall be appointed by the County Judge of Cameron County, Texas, for the purpose of condemning land and apportioning costs, and the apportionment shall be specially assessed by the governing authority of the City against the owners and their property lying in the territory so found by the Special Commissioners to be specially benefited in enhanced value, and the City may issue assignable certificates for the payment of any such cost against such property owners and their property and may provide for the payment thereof in deferred payments, which deferred payments shall bear interest at a rate not exceeding eight (8) percent per annum. The City shall pay such portion of costs as may be determined by the Special Commissioners to be due by it; provided the cost paid by the City shall never exceed one-third (⅓) of the cost of the improvement.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have the power:
(1) 
To control, regulate and remove all obstructions, encroachments and encumbrances on any public street, avenue, boulevard or alley and to narrow, alter, widen, straighten, vacate, abandon and close them; provided that the closing of all or any portions of any street or alley shall be adopted by ordinance of the City Commission; the City may close for the exclusive use, temporarily or perpetually by any railroad company or other corporation having power of eminent domain, any part or parts of any street or streets, alley or alleys, and to ratify and confirm any prior ordinances closing any street or streets, alley or alleys, or any part or parts of those, for the use of any railroad company or any other corporation; to provide for sprinkling and cleaning them and to regulate and control the moving of buildings and structures of every kind and character upon and along them. Provided, further, that when an ordinance to abandon or close any public street as set forth above is considered by the City Commission, the entire City Commission or a quorum may consider and pass said ordinance on first reading, but the ordinance shall not be passed or approved on final reading unless the entire City Commission is present for the vote on the ordinance.
(2) 
To require property owners, their agents and lessees to remove, within a reasonable time, ice, slush, snow and other debris from sidewalks fronting on property owned, occupied or controlled by the owner, agent or lessee, and to require the owner, agent or lessee to remove all low hanging limbs from trees adjacent to sidewalks in the City.
(Ordinance 73-30, adopted 11/7/1973; Ordinance 75-44, adopted 11/11/1975; Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have, except to the extent limited by the Texas Public Utilities Code, the Public Utilities Regulatory Act, the power and authority to grant franchises for the use or occupation of streets, avenues, alleys, rights-of-way, and any and all public lands owned or controlled by the City. No telegraph, telephone, electric light or power, street railroad, gas company, waterworks, water systems, or any other character of public utility shall be granted any franchise or permitted use of any street, avenue, alley, highway, or City land without first making an application and obtaining the consent of governmental authorities, expressed by ordinance, and after payment of such compensation as may be prescribed, and under such conditions as may be provided in the ordinance, and prior to an ordinance proposing to grant any franchise or privilege to any applicant to use or occupy any street, avenue, alley, right-of-way, or any other public land belonging to or under the control of the City, The publication of the ordinance, as finally proposed to be passed, shall be made in any newspaper published in the City of Harlingen, once a week for three (3) consecutive weeks, which shall be done at the expense of the applicant desiring the grant, and the proposed ordinance shall not be further amended unless republished as in the first instance, No ordinance shall come into force or become law or confer any rights on the applicant until after the expiration of thirty (30) days from the last publication of the ordinance, as described herein.
Pending the time when the ordinance may go into effect, it is the duty of the City's governmental authority to order an election if so requested by a written petition signed by at least ten (10) percent of the legally qualified voters, as determined by the number of votes cast at the last regular municipal election; at which election qualified City voters shall vote for or against the proposed grant, as set forth in detail by the ordinance conferring rights and privileges on the applicant for the grant. The election shall be ordered not less than thirty (30) days nor more than ninety (90) days from the date of filing of the petition and, if in the election a majority of the votes cast are for the grant of such franchise or privilege, the ordinance and the grant of the proposed grant shall then take effect,[.] But if the majority of the votes cast in the election are contrary to the granting of the right of suffrage or privilege, the ordinance shall be null and void and the proposed granting shall be null and void.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006; Resolution 2024-57 adopted 11/14/2024)
The City shall have exclusive control over all City parks and playgrounds and to control, regulate and remove all obstructions and prevent encroachments upon them; and to provide for raising, grading, filling, terracing, landscape gardening, erecting buildings, providing amusements, for establishing walks and paving driveways around, in and through the parks, playgrounds and other public grounds.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
The City shall have exclusive control to provide for a sanitary sewer system and for its maintenance; to require property owners to make connection to the sewers with their premises and to provide for fixing a lien against any property owner's premises who fails or refuses to make sanitary sewer connections and to charge the cost against the owner and make a personal liability, and to fix penalties for failure to make sanitary sewer connections.
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
(Ordinance 06-14, adopted 3/1/2006; Resolution 06R-19, adopted 5/17/2006)
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Editor's note — Former Sec. 8, which pertained to hours of municipal laborers, was repealed 11/11/1975 by Ordinance 75-44, proposed Charter amendment number 10. The amendment was approved at a referendum of the electorate held 12/9/1975.