(1) The establishment of conservancy districts for the purposes and in the manner provided for in articles 1 to 8 of this title is declared to be conducive to public health, safety, convenience, and welfare. Before any conservancy district is established under articles 1 to 8 of this title, a petition shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the court vested with jurisdiction, in a county in which all or part of the lands embraced in said proposed conservancy district are situated, signed either by two hundred owners of land or by a majority of the owners of land situate within the limits of the territory proposed to be organized into a district. Such petition may be signed by the governing body of any public corporation lying wholly or partly within the proposed district, in such manner as it may prescribe, and when so signed by such governing body such a petition on the part of the said governing body shall fill all the requirements of representation upon such petition of the owners of land of such public corporation as they appear upon the tax rolls; and thereafter it shall not be necessary for individuals within said public corporation to sign such a petition. Such a petition may also be signed by railroad corporations and other corporations owning lands within the proposed district. Any city interested in some degree in the improvement, upon proper action by its governing body, may alone file the petition required by this section.
The petition shall set forth: The proposed name of said district; that property withinthe proposed district will be benefited by the accomplishment of one or more of the purposes enumerated in section 37-2-101; and a general description of the purpose of the contemplated improvement and of the territory to be included in the proposed district. Said description need not be given by metes and bounds or by legal subdivisions, but it shall be sufficient to enable a property owner to ascertain whether his property is within the territory proposed to be organized as a district. Said territory need not be contiguous if it is so situated that the organization as a single district of the territory described is calculated to promote one or more of the purposes enumerated in section 37-2-101. Said petition shall pray for the organization of the district by the name proposed.
No petition with the requisite signatures shall be declared null and void on account ofalleged defects, but the court may at any time permit the petition to be amended to conform to the facts by correcting any errors in the description of the territory or in any other particular. Several similar petitions or duplicate copies of the same petition for the organization of the same district may be filed and shall together be regarded as one petition. All such petitions filed prior to the hearing on the first petition filed shall be considered by the court the same as though filed with the first petition placed on file. In determining whether a majority of landowners have signed the petition, the court shall be governed by the names as they appear upon the tax roll, which shall be prima facie evidence of such ownership.
Source: L. 22: p. 13, § 3. C.L. § 9517. CSA: C. 138, § 128. CRS 53: § 30-2-2. C.R.S. 1963: § 29-2-2.