
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
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[Laws in effect as of January 23, 2000]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 23, 2000 and December 4, 2001]
[CITE: 40USC72]

 
             TITLE 40--PUBLIC BUILDINGS, PROPERTY, AND WORKS
 
CHAPTER 1--PUBLIC BUILDINGS, GROUNDS, PARKS, AND WHARVES IN DISTRICT OF 
                                COLUMBIA
 
Sec. 72. Acquisition of land by Commission

    Said Commission or a majority thereof is authorized and directed to 
acquire such lands as in its judgment shall be necessary and desirable 
in the District of Columbia and adjacent areas in Maryland and Virginia, 
within the limits of the appropriations made for such purposes, for 
suitable development of the National Capital park, parkway, and 
playground system. Said Commission is authorized to acquire such lands 
by purchase when they can be acquired at prices reasonable in the 
judgment of said Commission, otherwise by condemnation proceedings, such 
proceedings to acquire lands within the District of Columbia to be in 
accordance with the provisions of the Act of Congress approved August 
30, 1890, providing a site for the Government Printing Office (United 
States Statutes at Large, volume 26, chapter 837), the Chief of 
Engineers of the Army being, for the purposes of sections 71 to 71i, 72, 
73 and 74 of this title, clothed with all the power vested by the said 
act of August 30, 1890, in the board created. Said Commission is 
authorized to acquire such lands, located in Maryland or Virginia, 
either by purchase or condemnation proceedings, by such arrangements as 
to acquisition and payment for the lands as it shall determine upon by 
agreement with the proper officials of the States of Maryland and 
Virginia. In the selection of lands to be acquired the advice of the 
Commission of Fine Arts shall be requested. The designation of all lands 
to be acquired by condemnation, all contracts for purchase of lands, and 
all agreements between said Commission and the officials of the States 
of Maryland and Virginia shall be subject to the approval of the 
President of the United States.

(June 6, 1924, ch. 270, Sec. 11, formerly Sec. 2, 43 Stat. 463; 
renumbered Sec. 11, July 19, 1952, ch. 949, Sec. 2, 66 Stat. 791.)

                       References in Text

    The Act of Congress approved August 30, 1890, providing a site for 
the Government Printing Office (United States Statutes at Large, volume 
26, chapter 837), referred to in text, is act Aug. 30, 1890, ch. 837, 26 
Stat. 412, which enacted section 120 of this title, section 861a of 
former Title 10, Army and Air Force, section 446 of Title 16, 
Conservation, sections 497, 601 and 651 of former Title 31, Money and 
Finance, section 887 of Title 33, Navigation and Navigable Waters, and 
sections 212, 662 and 945 of Title 43, Public Lands, and amended section 
321 of Title 43. Former Titles 10 and 31 were revised generally by act 
Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, Sec. 1, 70A Stat. 1, and Pub. L. 97-258, Sept. 
13, 1982, 96 Stat. 877, respectively. For disposition of sections of 
former titles, see Table I--Revised Titles. For complete classification 
of this Act to the Code, see Tables.
    Section 2 of act August 30, 1890, referred to in text, created a 
board consisting of the Secretary of the Treasury, the Public Printer, 
and the Architect of the Capitol to acquire land for the accommodation 
of the Government Printing Office and the construction of needed storage 
and distributing warehouses in connection therewith. Section 3 of such 
act authorized the board to acquire the land by negotiation at a price 
not above a fair relative value as to other lands which had been sold in 
the immediate vicinity; or if the board were unable to purchase said 
land by agreement with any one or more of the respective owners at a 
reasonable price within sixty days after the passage of the act, it was 
authorized to ``make application to the Supreme Court of the District of 
Columbia [now the United States District Court for the District of 
Columbia], at any general or special term thereof, by petition for the 
condemnation of such land not so purchased, and for the ascertainment of 
its value. Such petition shall contain a particular description of the 
property not so purchased, and selected for the purpose aforesaid, with 
the name of the owner or owners thereof and their residences, so far as 
the same may be ascertained, together with a plan of the land proposed 
to be taken; and thereupon the said court is authorized and required to 
cite all such owners and all other persons interested to appear in said 
court at a time to be fixed by such court, on reasonable notice, to 
answer the said petition; and if it shall appear to the court that there 
are any owners or other persons interested who are under disability the 
court shall give public notice of the time at which the said court will 
proceed with the matter of condemnation; and at such time if it shall 
appear that there are any persons under disability either who have 
appeared or who have not appeared, the court shall appoint guardians ad 
litem for each such persons, and the court shall thereupon proceed to 
appoint three capable and disinterested commissioners to appraise the 
value of the respective interests of all persons concerned in such 
lands, under such regulations as to notice and hearing as to the court 
shall seem meet. Such commissioners shall thereupon, after being duly 
sworn for the proper performance of their duties, examine the premises 
and hear the persons in interest who may appear before them, and return 
their appraisement of the value of the interests of all persons, 
respectively, in such land; and in case any of the persons entitled 
according to the judgment of the court are under disability, or can not 
be found, or neglect to receive payment, the money to be paid to any of 
them shall be deposited in the Treasury to their credit, unless there 
shall be some person lawfully authorized to receive the same under the 
direction of the court, and when such payments are so made, or the 
amounts belonging to persons to whom payment shall not be made are so 
deposited, the said lands shall be deemed to be condemned and taken by 
the United States for the public use.'' These provisions were never 
executed and the appropriation therefor was suspended by act Mar. 3, 
1891, ch. 542, 26 Stat. 989.
    However, the provisions of section 3 of the act of Aug. 30, 1890, 
referred to and partly quoted above, with respect to condemnation 
proceeding, were rendered general and permanent by a provision of the 
end of that section which read as follows:
    ``And hereafter, in all cases of the taking of property in the 
District of Columbia for public use, whether herein, heretofore, or 
hereafter authorized, the foregoing provisions, as it respects the 
application by the proper officer to the supreme court of the District 
of Columbia [see above for change in name] and the proceedings therein 
shall be as in the foregoing provisions declared''. In view of this 
provision, section 3, reworded at the beginning thereof to incorporate 
it, was classified to former section 120 of this title. Former section 
120 was superseded in effect by act Mar. 1, 1929, ch. 416, 45 Stat. 
1415, which was formerly classified to section 361 et seq. of this 
title. See chapter 13 (Sec. 16-1301 et seq.) of Title 16, Particular 
Actions, Proceedings and Matters, of the District of Columbia Code.

                          Codification

    Section is also set out in D.C. Code, Sec. 1-2009.

                          Transfer of Functions

    ``Commission'', as used in this section, refers to National Capital 
Planning Commission, rather than to National Capital Park and Planning 
Commission, in view of transfer of functions, powers, etc., from latter 
to former by section 71h of this title.

                         Delegation of Functions

    Authority of President under last sentence of this section to 
approve (i) designation of lands to be acquired by condemnation, (ii) 
contracts for purchase of lands, and (iii) agreements between National 
Capital Planning Commission and officials of States of Maryland and 
Virginia delegated to Director of Office of Management and Budget, see 
section 9(4) of Ex. Ord. No. 11609, July 22, 1971, 36 F.R. 13747, set 
out as a note under section 301 of Title 3, The President.

                  Section Referred to in Other Sections

    This section is referred to in sections 71, 71h, 72a, 74 of this 
title.
