FREDERICK COUNTY. 2565

1929, ch. 443, sec. 18.

455. The municipal planning commission is empowered, after it shall
have adopted a major street plan of the territory within its sub-division
jurisdiction or of any major section or district thereof, to make or cause to
be made, from time to time, surveys for the exact location of the lines of
a street or streets in any portion of such territory and to make a plat of
the area or district thus surveyed, showing the land which it recommends
be reserved for future acquisition for public streets. The commission,
before adopting any such plat, shall hold a public hearing thereon, notice
of the time and place of which, with a general description of the district
or area covered by the plat, shall be given not less than 10 days previous
to the time fixed therefor by one publication in a newspaper of general
circulation in the municipality. After such a hearing the commission
may transmit the plat, as originally made or modified as may be deter-
mined by the commission, to the Board of Aldermen, together with the
commission's estimate of the time or times within which the lands shown
on the plat as street locations should be acquired by the municipality.
Thereupon by resolution, the Board of Aldermen may approve and adopt
or may reject such plat or may modify it. In the resolution of adoption
of a plat the Board of Aldermen shall fix the period of time for which
the street locations shown upon the plat shall be deemed reserved for
future taking or acquisition for public use. Upon such adoption the
Board of Aldermen shall transmit one attested copy of the plat to the
Clerk of the Circuit Court for Frederick County and retain one copy for
the purpose of public examination and hearings of claims for compensa-
tion. Such approval and adoption of a plat shall not, however, be deemed
the opening or establishment of any street, nor the taking of any land for
street purposes, nor for public use, nor as a public improvement, but
solely as a reservation of the street locations shown thereon, for the period
specified in the Board of Aldermen resolution, for future taking or ac-
quisition for public use. The commission may, at any time, negotiate for
or secure from, the owner or owners of any such lands releases of claims
for damages or compensation for such reservations or agreements indemni-
fying the municipality from such claims by others, which releases or
agreements shall be binding upon the owner or owners executing the same
and their successors in title. At any time after the filing of a plat with
the county recorder, and during the period specified for the reservation,
the planning commission and the owner of any land containing a reserved
street location may agree upon a modification of the location of the lines
of the proposed street, such agreement to include a release by said owner
of any claim for compensation or damages by reason of such modification;
and thereupon the commission may make a plat corresponding to the said
modification and transmit same to the Board of Aldermen; and if such
modified plat be approved by the Board of Aldermen, they shall transmit
an attested copy thereof to the said county recorder, and said modified
plat shall take the place of the original plat. At any time the Board of
Aldermen may, by resolution, abandon any reservation and shall certify