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15 <br />(h) Waterfront improvements, which embrace the construction of <br />boardwalks, bulkheads, seawalls and other retaining walls along a bay, <br />river, canal or lake, with necessary fills and dredging, and may embrace <br />the acquisition by purchase, condemnation or otherwise of land, rights <br />and easements therefor. <br />(i) Opening, clearing, grading, drainage, and otherwise improving <br />streets, avenues and alleys dedicated for public use by a recorded map <br />or plat. <br />(5) The power of the city to make the local improvements embraced in this <br />section shall be exercised only upon petition as set out in subsection (7) of this <br />section, except in those cases covered by subsection (8) of this section, in which <br />cases such power may be exercised without petition. The provisions of this <br />section shall not be construed to limit authority granted elsewhere in this charter <br />or by general or special law to make special assessments for local improvements <br />without the filing of a petition as provided in this section. <br />(6) Any petition to the city council for the making of the local improvements <br />authorized by this section may embrace any one or more of the classes of local <br />improvements named in subsection (4), and may embrace improvements to be <br />made on or in more than one street; provided, any improvement to be made on <br />or in more than one street shall be practically uniform in cost and kind throughout <br />the improvement. <br />(7) The petition for any one or more of such local improvements shall designate <br />by a general description the improvement or improvements proposed, and shall <br />request that the same be made in conformity with the provisions of this section <br />and that such proportion of the cost of each of such improvements as may be <br />specified in the petition be specially assessed against the property abutting on <br />the street or streets or part thereof in which or on which such improvements are <br />proposed to be made. The petition shall be signed by at least a majority in <br />number of the owners, which majority must own at least a majority of all the lineal <br />feet of frontage, of the lands abutting upon the street or streets or part of a street <br />or streets proposed to be improved, excluding street intersections, and for the <br />purpose of the petition, all the owners of undivided interests in any land shall be <br />deemed and treated as one person and such land shall be sufficiently signed for <br />when the petition is signed by the owner or owners of a majority in amount of <br />such undivided interests; provided, that for the purpose of this subsection the <br />word "owners" shall be considered to mean the owners of any life estate, of an <br />estate by entirety, or of the estate of inheritance, and shall not include <br />mortgagees, trustees of a naked trust, trustees under deeds of trust to secure the <br />payment of money, lienholders or persons having the inchoate rights of a <br />surviving spouse. Upon the filing of such petition with the city council, the clerk, <br />or other person designated by the council, shall investigate the sufficiency of the <br />petition, and if it is found to be sufficient, he shall certify the same to the council. <br />(8) Whenever in the judgment of the city council any street or part of a street is <br />unsafe and dangerous, or whenever the paving or repaving of any street or part <br />thereof is necessary in order to connect streets already paved, or whenever the <br />paving of any street is necessary in order to connect any paved portion of any <br />city streets with a paved highway outside the corporate limits of the city, or <br />whenever the paving of any street or part thereof is necessary to provide a paved <br />