65 ILCS 5/ Illinois Municipal Code.

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65 ILCS 5/11-122-1

(65 ILCS 5/11-122-1) (from Ch. 24, par. 11-122-1)

Sec. 11-122-1.

Subject to the provisions of Section 11-122-6, every city
may own, construct, acquire, purchase, maintain, and operate street
railways within its corporate limits. For the purpose of this Division 122
the expression "street railways" includes railways above, on, or below the
surface of the city streets. But no city shall proceed to operate street
railways unless the proposition to operate is first submitted to the
electors of the city as a separate proposition and approved by three-fifths
of those voting thereon.

The city council of any city that decides by popular vote, as provided
in this Division 122, to operate street railways, has the power to make all
needful rules and regulations respecting the operation thereof, including
the power to fix and prescribe rates and charges. But these rates and
charges shall be high enough (1) to produce a revenue sufficient to bear
all costs of maintenance and operation, (2) to meet interest charges on all
bonds or certificates issued on account of these railways, and (3) to
permit the accumulation of a surplus or sinking fund sufficient to meet all
such outstanding bonds or certificates at maturity. Street railways owned
and operated by such a city, or owned by the city and leased for operating
purposes to a private company, may carry passengers and their ordinary
baggage, parcels, packages, and United States mail, and may be utilized for
such other purposes as the city council of the city may deem proper. Such
street railways may be operated by such motive power as the city council
may approve, except steam locomotives.

(Source: Laws 1961, p. 576.)

65 ILCS 5/11-122-2

(65 ILCS 5/11-122-2) (from Ch. 24, par. 11-122-2)

Sec. 11-122-2.

Subject to the provisions of Section 11-122-6, every city
may lease street railways, or any part thereof, owned by the city to any
company incorporated under the laws of this state for the purpose of
operating street railways for any period, not longer than 20 years, on such
terms and conditions as the city council deems for the best interests of
the public.

Such a city has the power to incorporate in any grant of the right to
construct or operate street railways a reservation of the right on the part
of the city to take over all or part of those street railways, at or before
the expiration of the grant, upon such terms and conditions as may be
provided in the grant. The city also has the power to provide in such a
grant that in case the reserved right is not exercised by the city and the
city grants a right to another company to operate a street railway in the
streets or part of the streets occupied by its grantee under the former
grant, the new grantee shall purchase and take over the street railways of
the former grantee upon the terms that the city might have taken them over.
The city council of the city has the power to make a grant, containing such
a reservation, for either the construction or operation or both the
construction and operation of a street railway in, upon, and along any of
the streets or public ways therein, or portions thereof, in which street
railway tracks are already located at the time of the making of the grant,
without the petition or consent of any of the owners of the land abutting
or fronting upon any street or public way, or portion thereof, covered by
the grant.

No ordinance authorizing a lease for a longer period than 5 years, nor
any ordinance renewing any lease, shall go into effect until the expiration
of 30 days from and after its publication. The ordinance
shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the city. The
publication or posting of the ordinance shall be accompanied by a notice
of (1) the specific number of voters required to sign a petition requesting
the question of authorizing the lease of a street railway for a period longer
than 5 years to be submitted to the electors; (2) the time in which such
petition must be filed; and (3) the date of the prospective referendum.
The city clerk shall provide a petition form to any individual requesting
one. And if, within that 30 days, there is filed with the city clerk a
petition signed by voters in the municipality equal to 10% or more of the
registered voters in the municipality, asking that
the ordinance be submitted to a popular vote, the ordinance shall not go
into effect unless the question of its adoption is first submitted to the
electors of the city and approved by a majority of those voting thereon.

The signatures to the petition need not all be on one paper but each
signer shall add to his signature, which shall be in his own handwriting,
his place of residence, giving the street and number. One of the signers of
each such paper shall make oath before an officer competent to administer
oaths, that each signature on the paper is the genuine signature of the
person whose name it purports to be.

In case of the leasing by any city of any street railway owned by it,
the rental reserved shall be based on both the actual value of the tangible
property and of the franchise contained in the lease, and the rental shall
not be less than a sufficient sum to meet the annual interest upon all
outstanding bonds or street railway certificates issued by the city on
account of that street railway.

(Source: P.A. 87-767.)

65 ILCS 5/11-122-3

(65 ILCS 5/11-122-3) (from Ch. 24, par. 11-122-3)

Sec. 11-122-3.

For the purpose of acquiring street railways either by
purchase or construction, as provided for in this Division 122, or for the
equipment of any such street railways, any city may borrow money and issue
its negotiable bonds therefor, pledging the faith and credit of the city.
But no such bonds shall be issued unless the proposition to issue the bonds
is first submitted to the electors of the city and approved by two-thirds
of those voting thereon, nor shall the bonds be issued in an amount in
excess of the cost to the city of the property for which the bonds are
issued, ascertained as provided in this Division 122, and 10% of that cost
in addition thereto.

In the exercise of the powers, or any of them, granted by this Division
122, a city has the power to acquire, take, and hold all necessary
property, real, personal, or mixed, for the purposes specified in this
Division 122, either by purchase or condemnation in the manner provided by
law for the taking and condemning of private property for public use.
However, in no valuation of street railway property for the purpose of any
such acquisition, except of street railways now operated under existing
franchises, shall any sum be included as the value of any earning power of
that property or of the unexpired portion of any franchise granted by the
city.

(Source: Laws 1961, p. 576.)