This legislation did not authorize the condemnation of riparian rights, but only the acquisition of such rights by negotiation. To facilitate settlement, an Act passed May 2, 1907,[70] empowered the park commissioners, with the approval of the Circuit Court, to agree with the riparian owners upon a boundary line between the public park and the private shore lands, and to convey to the riparian owners all submerged land lying inside of the boundary line thus fixed by agreement; in other words, the park board, having received from the state a grant of its title to the bed of the lake, is authorized to sell and convey to the shore owners so much thereof as may be necessary to induce them to release their riparian rights. If any shore land is owned by persons who are incompetent to contract or who are unknown, the power is given to condemn their riparian rights, pursuant to the provisions of the statute of eminent domain. That power should not be limited to the lands of unknown or legally incompetent owners. Under this legislation, the park board has power to build a boulevard far out into the lake and to settle with the riparian owners by conveying to them as wide a strip of the submerged lands as may be deemed expedient; and the shore owners will then have the right to fill in such submerged strip, thus adding extensive areas of valuable shore land to their present holdings. The constitutionality of this legislation is virtually settled by the case of _People_ v. _Kirk_, 162 Ill. 138, sustaining a similar arrangement between the Lincoln Park board and the proprietors of the shore south of Oak Street. The Lincoln Park board has been given power to condemn shore lands and riparian rights under an amendment of Section 2 of an act passed June 15, 1895, and court proceedings are authorized for the establishment of the boundary line between the park lands and the lands of private owners.[71]