Whenever a railroad company has leased to a city, for a term of 25 years or, a portion of the company’s right-of-way to be used for street purposes, at a nominal cash rental but with the terms of the lease providing that no special assessments for street improvements shall be levied or assessed against the lessor or against the property owned by the lessor which is adjacent to the leased premises, the governing body of such city may, by ordinance, declare it necessary to improve the property so leased as a business thoroughfare and cause the property so leased to be graded, curbed, guttered, paved, macadamized, regraded, recurbed, reguttered or remacadamized. The cost of such improvement shall be borne by the city as a whole and shall be paid by the issuance of general improvement bonds of the city according to law. Before the improvement is made, the ordinance shall be published once each week for two consecutive weeks in the official city paper. If, within 20 days after the ordinance is published, there is filed with the city clerk a protest signed by qualified electors of the city equal in number to not less than 10% of the qualified electors of the city who voted for the office of mayor at the last election at which a mayor was elected, the improvement shall not be made nor bonds issued unless the governing body calls an election within the time and manner provided by Kan. Stat. Ann. § 10-120, and amendments thereto. If at such election the proposition receives the favorable vote of a majority of the votes cast on the proposition, the improvement may be made and bonds issued therefor. The ordinance declaring it necessary to improve the property as a business thoroughfare shall contain a statement relating to the provision for protest.