Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1930 [PAGE 521]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

518

board of trustees

[February 5

"The Street known as "White Street" the route of which is more particularly described as follows, Viz: Commencing on West side of Romine Street, thence running due east between Blocks 41 and 51 of the 'Seminary Addition' to Urbana; thence due east to east side of 'Lincoln Avenue,' shall be known as 'Main Street' in lieu of the name 'White Street.' " From time to time the City of Urbana accepted the plat, supra, opened and improved the streets as thereon designated. There does not seem to have been formal acceptance of the plat by action of the City Council, but there has been acceptance in fact of various streets and parts of streets by opening and improving them. Legal Propositions Certain legal propositions must be stated as a foundation for our conclusion. In only two ways, pertinent to the present inquiry, may land be dedicated to the public for highway purposes, namely: in the common law or the statutory mode. The dedication in question was effected by the statutory method. A n examination of the abstract, handed me as a basis for this opinion, discloses that the plat is deficient in one essential particular from which it would follow, were the abstract correct, that the plat failed as a statutory dedication. I have reference to the requirement of Section 1 of Chapter 109 S.H. Statutes that reference must be made, on the plat, to some "known and permanent monument from which future surveys can be made." N o such monument appears on the plat attached to the abstract. O n looking up the original record in the office of the Recorder 1 find that there is a stone shown at the intersection of East Main and Wright Streets. I am, therefore, of the opinion that the plat complies with the statute and that there was a dedication in the statutory mode. Such a plat vests a base, determinable fee in the municipality so long, and only so long, as the land is devoted to the public use. And i such a street be vacated f or abandoned, the title to the land, in the absence of valid reservations to the contrary, passes by way of conditional limitation to the owners of the lots abutting thereon. Prall v. Bruckhart 299 111. 19; Chap. 145 Smith-Hurd Statutes, Sec. 2. In order that there may be a vesting of title in the public, as a result of the filing of such a plat, there must be an acceptance, expressly or impliedly. Acceptance is implied when the city opens the streets and improves them. But acceptance of a part of a street is not necessarily an acceptance of all the street; nor is acceptance of one street necessarily an acceptance of other streets shown on the plat. Consequently, opening and improving Main (White) Street to Romine Street, is not necessarily an acceptance of the entire street to Wright Street. Reichert Co. v. Freeburg 217 111. 384. Moore v. City of Chicago 261 111. 56. There exists no duty on the part of the public to accept every part of a proffered dedication. It is also well settled in this state that a city may by non-user abandon a public way and that it may so conduct itself with reference to a strip of land described on a plat as a street as to estop itself from "demanding an opening of the street." The reason is that others may have so conducted themselves in reliance upon the appearances as to make it inequitable to permit the city to change its position to the detriment of one who has in good faith and justifiably acted in the belief that there would be no change. See Reichert Co. v. Freeburg, supra. Dillon M u n . Corp. sec. 533; Chicago v. Elgin 91 111. 251. Independently of the foregoing legal principles, which seem to m e controlling and decisive, the following special act of the Legislature, Vol. 2 Private Laws of Illinois, 1869, would seem to settle the matter: "That so much of East Stoughton and East White streets as lay between Wright street and Romine street, in the seminary addition to the city of Urbana, together with the alleys running through blocks fifty-two (52) and fifty-three (53) of said addition, and the alleys running between lots twenty-seven (27) and twenty-eight (28), in James S. Busey's addition to Urbana, be and the same are hereby declared vacated; and the title to the streets and alleys so vacated, vested in the owners of the contiguous lots. passage." actacross west declared aCityStreet, and has nevercityforcenoMain Street, for publicStreet the hereby than RomineConclusion obtaining the consentpower to extend MainI a m of is opinion that the without first that the acceptedfrom and Board its This farther Illinois Field, public Urbana shall be in has use, of act, and of the after of