(a) The board of improvement of any municipal wharf improvement district of this state owning wharves, river and rail terminals, warehouses, and tracks for the transfer and interchange of river and rail freights, including the lands, equipments, and all appliances incident to its operation, together with the right and franchise to operate them, may sell the properties and terminal facilities when the board shall determine, by resolution adopted by a majority vote of the board, that it would be to the best interest of the district that the sale be consummated.

(b) Before any such sale shall be consummated, there shall be filed, within one (1) year after the adoption of the resolution, with the city council of the city within which the district is situated, a petition signed by a majority in value, as shown by the last county assessment, of the owners of real property within the district, proposing to make the sale, asking that the sale be made, and stating the minimum price at which the sale shall be made. This shall in no event be a sum less than the amount necessary to pay all of the outstanding indebtedness against the district.

(c) Upon the filing of the petition or petitions, the council shall give notice by publication one (1) time a week for two (2) weeks in some newspaper published in the county in which the district is situated. This publication shall advise the owners of real property within the district that on a day therein named the council of the city will hear the petition and determine whether those signing it constitute a majority in value of the owners of real property.

(d) At the meeting named in the notice, the owners of real property within the district shall be heard before the council, which shall determine whether the signers of the petition constitute a majority in value, and the finding of the council shall be conclusive.

(e) It shall be the duty of the council to ratify and confirm the proposed sale unless within thirty (30) days thereafter suit is brought to review its action in the chancery court of the county in which the district is situated.

(f) In determining whether those signing the petition constitute a majority in value of the owners of real property within the district, the council and the court shall be guided by the records of deeds in the office of the recorder of the county and shall not consider any unrecorded instrument.