§ 2.8. Eminent domain

Said city shall have the right of eminent domain and the power to appropriate private property for public use and purposes whenever the governing authority deems it necessary; and to take any private property within or without the city limits, for any of the following purposes: city halls, fire stations, police stations, jails, calabooses, fire alarm systems, libraries, hospitals, sanitariums, auditoriums, market houses, reformatories, abattoirs, streets, alleys, parks, highways, playgrounds, sewer systems, storm sewers, sewage disposal plants, filtering beds and emptying grounds for sewer systems, drainage, water supply sources, wells, water and electric light and power systems, streetcar systems, telephone and telegraph systems, gas plants, or gas systems, cemeteries, crematories, prison farms, pesthouses, and to acquire lands, within or without the city, for any other municipal purpose that may be deemed advisable. The power herein granted for the purpose of acquiring private property shall include the power of improvement and enlargement of waterworks, including water supply, riparian rights, standpipe, watersheds and the construction of supply reservoirs. In all cases wherein the city exercises the power of eminent domain, it shall be controlled, as nearly as practicable, by the laws governing the condemnation of property by railroad corporations in the state; the city taking the position of the railroad corporation in such case. The power of eminent domain hereby conferred shall include the right of the governing authority, when so expressed, to take the fee in the land so condemned, and such power and authority shall include the right to condemn public property for such purposes.

refstatelaw

Municipal power of eminent domain, procedure, V.T.C.A., Local Government Code §§ 251.001, 251.002; eminent domain, V.T.C.A., Property Code § 21.001 et seq.