§ 56. Application to condemn property. After such maps shall have
been filed in the office of the register or county clerk, the
corporation counsel, for and on behalf of the city, shall, and he may
from time to time, upon first giving the notice required by section
fifty-five of this chapter, apply to the supreme court at any special
term thereof, to be held in the judicial district in which such county
is situated, to have the compensation which should justly be made to the
respective owners of or persons interested in the property proposed to
be taken or extinguished by such proceedings ascertained and determined
by such court without a jury. Upon each such application he shall
present to the court a petition, signed by a majority of the members of
the board of transportation and verified in the manner prescribed by law
for the verification of pleadings, according to the practice of such
court, setting forth the action or determination theretofore taken or
had by such board with respect to the property to be acquired, and the
filing of such maps or plans and memoranda, and stating the amount or
valuation at which each parcel of the property to be acquired has been
assessed for purposes of taxation on the tax-rolls of the city for each
of the three years preceding the date of the petition, and praying that
the compensation which should justly be made to the respective owners of
or persons interested in the property proposed to be taken or
extinguished by such proceeding be ascertained and determined by such
court without a jury. Such petition shall contain a general description
of all the property to, or in or over or appurtenant to which any
property right is sought to be acquired, or extinguished, and of every
property right sought to be acquired by the city for public purposes,
each lot or parcel being more particularly described by a reference to
the number of such lot or parcel as given on such maps, and the property
right sought to be acquired, or extinguished, to or in or over or
appurtenant to each of such lots or parcels, shall be stated in such
petition.