The Mayor of the District of Columbia shall not permit or authorize any additional telegraph, telephone, electric lighting or other wires to be erected or maintained on or over any of the streets or avenues of the City of Washington; provided, that the Mayor of the District may, under such reasonable conditions as he may prescribe, authorize the wires of any electric light company existing on July 18, 1888, and then operating in the District of Columbia, to be laid under any street, alley, highway, footway or sidewalk in the District, whenever in his judgment the public interest may require the exercise of such authority, such privileges as may be granted hereunder to be revocable at the will of Congress without compensation and no such authority to be exercised after the termination of the 50th Congress.
(July 18, 1888, 25 Stat. 323, ch. 676, § 1.)
HISTORICAL AND STATUTORY NOTES
Prior Codifications
1981 Ed., § 43-1401.
1973 Ed., § 43-1401.
Temporary Amendments of Section
For temporary (225 day) amendment of section, see § 2 of the Moratorium on the Construction of Certain Telecommunications Towers Temporary Act of 2001 (D.C. Law 14-17, July 10, 2001, law notification 48 DCR 6593).
Emergency Act Amendments
For temporary (90 day) moratorium on construction of telecommunications towers, see § 2 of Moratorium on the Construction of Certain Telecommunications Towers Emergency Act of 2001 (D.C. Act 14-32, April 2, 2001, 48 DCR 3344).
Change in Government
This section originated at a time when local government powers were delegated to a Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia (see Acts Relating to the Establishment of the District of Columbia and its Various Forms of Governmental Organization in Volume 1). Section 401 of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1967 (see Reorganization Plans in Volume 1) transferred all of the functions of the Board of Commissioners under this section to a single Commissioner. The District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, 87 Stat. 818, § 711 (D.C. Code, § 1-207.11), abolished the District of Columbia Council and the Office of Commissioner of the District of Columbia. These branches of government were replaced by the Council of the District of Columbia and the Office of Mayor of the District of Columbia, respectively. Accordingly, and also pursuant to § 714(a) of such Act (D.C. Code, § 1-207.14(a)), appropriate changes in terminology were made in this section.
