ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY. 395

1898, ch. 349, sec. 18.

137. If in opening or laying out any new street or alley, the said
Commissioners cannot agree with the owner or owners of any land or
property wanted for the purpose, for the purchase, use or occupation of
the same, or if the owner is a feme covert, under age or non compos
mentis, or out of Anne Arundel County, application may be made to any
justice of the peace for said county, who shall thereupon issue his warrant
under his hand and seal, directed to the sheriff of said county, requiring
him to summon a jury of twenty inhabitants of said county, of legal age,
not related to the parties or in any wise interested, and from such panel of
twenty jurors, each party or his agent, or if either be not present in per-
son or by agent, the sheriff for him may strike off four jurors, and the
remaining twelve shall act as a jury of inquest of damages, to meet on
the land or near the property to be valued, on a day to be named in the
warrant not less than ten or more than twenty days after the issuing of
the same; that the sheriff shall, before the jury shall proceed to act,
administer an oath to each that he will justly and impartially value the
damages the owner will sustain by the use or occupation of the property
for the uses hereinbefore mentioned. That the jury in estimating the
damages, shall take into consideration the benefits resulting to the owner
from the opening and laying out of said streets and alleys, through, along
or near to the property of the said owner; and the jury shall reduce their
inquisition to writing, and shall sign and seal the same, and it shall then
be returned by the sheriff to the clerk of the Circuit Court for Anne
Arundel County, and shall be confirmed by the said court at its next ses-
sion, if no sufficient cause to the contrary be shown, and when confirmed,
shall be recorded by said clerk at the expense of the said commissioners;
and if the said inquisition shall be set aside by the Circuit Court for
Anne Arundel County, the said court may direct another to be taken
in the same manner as the first. That every inquisition shall describe
the property taken or the bounds of the land condemned, and the, quantity
or duration of the interest of the same therein valued, and such valuation
when paid or tendered to the owner or owners of the property taken, or
his legal representatives, shall entitle the said Commissioners to the estates,
use and interest in the same so valued for the purposes aforesaid, as fully
as if the same had been conveyed by the owner or his legal representatives.

1898, ch. 349, sec. 19.

138. The said Commissioners shall have the power to pass ordinances
regulating the limits within which it shall be lawful to erect steps, porti-
coes, bay windows or other architectural ornaments to houses fronting
on any part of streets of said town; to regulate party walls and partition
fences; to direct in what part of said town buildings of wood may not
be erected; to regulate the manner in which public halls, churches, school
houses, bath houses, or places of amusement shall be constructed, and to
fix the penalty for violation thereof.