(1) Whenever the owner or owners of tracts to be assessed in the proposed improvement district for not less than ninety-five percent of the entire cost of any project, including all incidental expenses, comprising more than fifty percent of the area of such territory and also comprising a majority of the landowners residing in the territory, may by written petition initiate the acquisition of any assessment project which the board is authorized to initiate, subject to the following limitations:
The board may incorporate such project in any improvement district or districts;
The board need not proceed with the acquisition of any such project or any partthereof after holding a provisional order hearing thereon, pursuant to sections 32-11-608 to 3211-611, and all provisions of this article thereunto enabling, if the board determines that it is not for the public interest that the proposed project or a part thereof be then ordered to be made; and
Any particular kind of project, any material therefor, or any part thereof need not beacquired or located, as provided in the petition, if the board determines that such is not for the public interest.
The board need not take any proceedings or action upon receiving any such petitionif the board determines by resolution that the acquisition of the designated project probably is not feasible for reasons stated in such resolution, and if the resolution requires a cash deposit or a pledge of property in at least an amount or value therein designated and found therein by the board probably to be sufficient to defray the expenses and costs incurred by the board taken preliminary to and in the attempted acquisition of the project designated in the petition, and if such deposit or pledge is not made with the treasurer within twenty days after notice by mail is given to the person presenting the petition to the secretary of the urban district or after one publication in a newspaper of general circulation in the urban district of a notice of the resolution's adoption and of its content in summary form, as the board may determine. An additional deposit or pledge may from time to time be similarly so required as a condition precedent to the continuation of action by the urban district.
Whenever such deposit or pledge is so made and thereafter the board determines thatsuch acquisition is not feasible within a reasonable period of time, the board may require that all or any portion of the costs theretofore incurred in connection therewith by the urban district after its receipt of the petition shall be defrayed from such deposit or the proceeds of such pledged property, in the absence of such defrayment of costs by petitioners or other interested persons within twenty days after the determination by resolution of the amount so to be defrayed and after such published notice thereof.
Any surplus moneys remaining from such deposit or pledge shall be returned by theurban district to the person making the same.
Source: L. 69: p. 786, § 117. C.R.S. 1963: § 89-21-117.