It shall be lawful for the city of Philadelphia to widen, straighten or change the course of any of the streets of the city of Philadelphia, that may be upon the confirmed plans of the city, when a petition signed by a majority of the owners of property fronting thereon shall be submitted to councils, and a plan of the same duly prepared and approved by the board of surveyors shall have been confirmed by the court of quarter sessions, as now provided in law, under which the late district of Spring Garden was surveyed; and any owner whose ground may be taken for such purpose shall be compensated under existing laws, as in case of ground or property taken for the opening of streets in the city of Philadelphia.
53 P.S. § 16422