When a majority of the property owners, or the owners of a majority of the feet frontage for a continuous distance of five hundred feet or more, on any one or both sides of any street, road, or lane used as a public highway, in cities of the first class, shall petition councils of said cities for a paved footway along the same, they shall state in their petition the kind of pavement wanted by them; and council shall, when said petition is received, direct the highway department of said city to notify the owner of property on said street, or such part thereof as may have been included in the petition, to have such footway paved in front of their respective premises, in the manner indicated in the petition, within sixty days after receiving said notice.
53 P.S. § 13846