§ 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.