Section 56. Application to condemn property

After such maps shall have
  been  filed  in  the  office  of  the  register  or  county  clerk,  the
  corporation  counsel,  for  and on behalf of the city, shall, and he may
  from time to time, upon first giving  the  notice  required  by  section
  fifty-five  of  this  chapter, apply to the supreme court at any special
  term thereof, to be held in the judicial district in which  such  county
  is situated, to have the compensation which should justly be made to the
  respective  owners  of or persons interested in the property proposed to
  be taken or extinguished by such proceedings ascertained and  determined
  by  such  court  without  a  jury.  Upon  each such application he shall
  present to the court a petition, signed by a majority of the members  of
  the board of transportation and verified in the manner prescribed by law
  for  the  verification  of  pleadings, according to the practice of such
  court, setting forth the action or determination  theretofore  taken  or
  had  by  such board with respect to the property to be acquired, and the
  filing of such maps or plans and memoranda, and stating  the  amount  or
  valuation  at  which each parcel of the property to be acquired has been
  assessed for purposes of taxation on the tax-rolls of the city for  each
  of  the three years preceding the date of the petition, and praying that
  the compensation which should justly be made to the respective owners of
  or  persons  interested  in  the  property  proposed  to  be  taken   or
  extinguished  by  such  proceeding be ascertained and determined by such
  court without a jury. Such petition shall contain a general  description
  of  all  the  property  to,  or  in  or over or appurtenant to which any
  property right is sought to be acquired, or extinguished, and  of  every
  property  right  sought  to be acquired by the city for public purposes,
  each lot or parcel being more particularly described by a  reference  to
  the number of such lot or parcel as given on such maps, and the property
  right  sought  to  be  acquired,  or  extinguished,  to or in or over or
  appurtenant to each of such lots or parcels, shall  be  stated  in  such
  petition.