Each commission shall be empowered as follows:
(1) To place into effect and revise whenever it so wishes or may be required a schedule of sewer service and sewer connection charges for the use of and connection to any sewage disposal system which it may operate. Prior to the making of any sewer connection or the furnishing of any sewage disposal service for which the prescribed sewer service charge shall, pursuant to Section 6-11-1240, become a lien on the property affected and prior to any subsequent increase in any such sewer service charge, not less than ten days' written notice shall be given to each affected property owner notifying him of the nature and quantum of the sewer service charge and providing such property owner an opportunity if desired and requested, to appear and be heard in person or by counsel before the commission. Following such hearing, if such be requested and held, action shall be taken by the commission and notice of its decision shall be given to the property owner concerned or to his counsel, as the case may be, not less than ten days prior to the effective date of the sewer service charge. Any property owner aggrieved by the action of the commission may, under the provisions of Chapter 7, Title 18, appeal to the court of common pleas for the county in which the property affected or any part thereof lies to have such court review the action taken by the commission, at which time the court will determine the validity and reasonableness of the sewer service charge so made. Sewer service charges not intended to become liens in the case of nonpayment can be imposed and subsequently increased upon any user in the district without such notice and hearing.
(2) To enter into contracts with any water distribution agency upon terms and conditions to be mutually agreed upon by which the commission shall constitute the water collection agency the agent of the commission, for the purpose of collecting such sewer service charges as the commission shall from time to time impose upon those who utilize its sewage disposal facilities and shall empower the water collection agency as such agent to disconnect water service upon failure of any user to pay such sewer service charges.
(3) To prescribe and enforce regulations (a) requiring all persons to whom it shall be available to make use of any sewer system which the district shall from time to time operate; and (b) generally with respect to the discharge of sewage and the use of privies, septic tanks and any other type of sewage facilities within the district. Any such regulations shall, however, become effective only after they have been adopted by resolution of the commission, a certified copy thereof has been recorded in the office of the register of deeds, or, if none, in the office of the clerk of court of common pleas for each county in which such sewer system lies, a copy posted in the courthouse of each such county, and notice of the adoption of such resolution has been published at least once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper having general circulation in the district. The published notice shall specify in brief the scope of the regulations and shall state the date on which the same shall become effective. Prior to the adoption of the aforesaid resolution, the commission shall give public notice of a meeting to be held to consider its adoption and the notice shall appear in a newspaper having general circulation in the district at least once not less than seven days prior to the occasion fixed for the holding of such meeting. Any person affected may attend such meeting and express his views on the proposed regulations. The provisions of this paragraph prescribing conditions upon the effectiveness of the regulations specified above in this paragraph shall not be deemed to impose mandatory conditions upon the exercise of any other power or the adoption of any other type of regulation authorized by this article or otherwise.
The regulations authorized hereby include regulations which permit the disconnection of property from sewer service in the event of nonpayment of sewer charges. No such regulations shall permit any disconnection until after the customer has been given an opportunity to be heard in person or by counsel on the question of disconnection before the commission or any person designated by the commission after not less than five days' written notice specifying the basis for the disconnection.
(4) To provide by resolution that the actual cost of the establishment and construction of a water distribution line or sewer lateral collection line hereafter constructed by the commission and an extension of a line within the district, or so much of the actual cost as the commission considers appropriate, must be assessed subject to the provisions of the next paragraph upon the lots and parcels of land abutting directly on the lateral line or extension of a line according to the extent of the respective frontage on them, by an equal rate per foot of frontage; but the commission may provide, in the instance of corner lots, for an assessment considered to be equitable. If the area to be served is part of a development plan or zoned for residential use, then an assessment may be levied by the commission on a parcel or per unit basis rather than on a front-foot basis. As used in this section, "front-foot assessment" includes assessments levied on a parcel or per unit basis. The commission may provide in the resolution that the front-foot assessments to be levied in connection with the installations may be paid in equal installments covering a period of not exceeding twenty years. The deferred payments are payable annually within the period that county taxes are payable and late payments must be penalized to the same extent as in the case of county taxes.
The General Assembly does not intend through this article to permit assessments against abutting property where no benefit results to the property or where a benefit results only at some remote future time. Accordingly, no commission pursuant to this article may impose a front-foot assessment against any property unless the property is being used for or is devoted to commercial or residential purposes at the time of the assessment or unless, in the case of properties on which no buildings are situate, those properties have been platted, zoned, or otherwise developed as a part of a subdivision devoted to residential or commercial purposes. If any property pursuant to the provisions of this paragraph is exempt from front-foot assessment at the time the assessment is originally levied, is later converted to commercial, industrial, or residential purposes, or is later platted, zoned, or otherwise developed then at that time front-foot assessments may be levied against the property. No individual residential parcel may be assessed on the basis of more than two hundred fifty feet of frontage.
If, on the effective date of this paragraph, the area to be served is a residential subdivision that received conceptual approval under Regulation 61-57 for septic tank use and has five or more lots later denied permits for a septic tank system for which the Department of Health and Environmental Control has developed standards, an assessment may be levied on the abutting parcels in the subdivision for the actual costs of sewer lateral collection lines in the subdivision and for transmission lines and associated infrastructure, including, but not limited to, trunk lines, force mains, pump stations, and lift stations, to be constructed to connect the sewer lateral collection lines to other infrastructure of the district. The satisfaction of the preconditions to this subsection may be conclusively established by a letter or certificate of the department.
In connection with the imposition of such front-foot assessments:
(a) The resolution providing for such front-foot assessments shall designate by a general description the improvement to be made and the street or parts thereof whereon the work is to be effected and the actual cost thereof and the amount of the cost to be assessed upon all abutting property subject to the provisions of the preceding paragraph and the terms and manner of payment. Such resolution shall not become effective until at least seven days after it shall have been published in a newspaper of general circulation in the district. Such resolution may incorporate by reference plats and engineering reports and other data on file in the commission's office provided that the place of filing and reasonable hours for inspection by interested persons are specified in the resolution. Within thirty days of such publication the commission shall prepare in poster form a notice advising of the proposed assessments and generally describing the area to be affected and shall deliver the notice to the register of deeds or, if none, to the clerk of court of each county wherein any affected property lies. The register of deeds or clerk of court shall prominently display such notice in his office until the assessment roll prescribed by subitem (e) has been filed. Failure to provide or post such notice shall not affect the validity of any assessment hereunder.
(b) Upon the completion of the construction of any such sewer laterals or any extensions thereof the commission shall compute and ascertain the total cost thereof and shall thereupon make an assessment of such total cost or so much thereof as it deems appropriate. For that purpose the commission shall make out an assessment roll in which must be entered the names of the persons assessed and the amount assessed against their respective properties with a brief description of the lots or parcels of land assessed.
(c) Immediately after such assessment roll has been completed, the commission shall forthwith cause one copy thereof to be deposited in the commission's office for inspection by interested parties, and shall cause to be published at least once in a newspaper of general circulation within the district a notice of completion of the assessment roll setting forth a description in general terms of the improvements and the time fixed for the meeting of the commission for a hearing of objections in respect of the front-foot assessments; such meeting not to be earlier than ten days from the date of the publication of such notice.
(d) As soon as practicable after the completion of the assessment roll and prior to the publication of the notice above-mentioned in subparagraph (c) the commission shall mail to the owner or owners of each lot or parcel of land against which a front-foot assessment is to be levied at his or their address, if any, appearing on the records of the county treasurer, a notice stating the nature of the improvement, the total cost thereof, the amount to be assessed against the particular property and the frontage in feet upon which the front-foot assessment is based, together with the terms and conditions upon which the front-foot assessment may be paid. This notice shall also contain a brief description of the particular property involved together with a statement that the amount assessed shall constitute a lien against the property superior to all other liens except property taxes. The notice shall also state the time and place fixed for the meeting of the commission above-mentioned for a hearing of objections in respect of the front-foot assessments. Any property owner who fails, not later than three days prior to the date set for such meeting, to file with the commission a written objection to the front-foot assessments against his property shall be deemed to have waived all rights to object to such front-foot assessment; and the notice prescribed herein shall so state.
(e) At the time and place specified for the meeting above-mentioned, or at some other time to which it may adjourn, the commission shall hear the objections of all persons who have filed written notice of objection within the time prescribed above who may appear and make proof in relation thereto either in person or by their attorney. The commission may thereupon make such corrections in the assessment roll as it may deem proper, confirm the same, set it aside and provide for a new assessment. Whenever the commission shall confirm an assessment roll, either as originally prepared or as thereafter corrected, a copy thereof certified by the secretary of the commission shall forthwith be filed in the office of the register of deeds or, if none, in the office of the clerk of court of common pleas of each county in which any property lies, and against which any front-foot assessments have been levied; from the time of such filing the front-foot assessments impressed in the assessment roll shall constitute and be a lien on the real property against which the same are assessed superior to all other liens and encumbrances except only the lien for property taxes.
(f) After the assessment roll has been confirmed a certified copy thereof shall be delivered to the treasurer of each county in which any front-foot assessments are levied thereby who shall prepare and keep a separate book or books in connection therewith and who shall proceed to collect the same in the manner of county taxes and shall remit such collections on or before April fifteenth of each year upon the direction of the commission. Each year the county treasurer shall mail out notices of such front-foot assessments at the same time county tax notices are mailed. Past due front-foot assessments shall be turned over by the respective county treasurers to the county sheriff or delinquent tax collector who shall proceed to collect in the same manner as unpaid county taxes are collected. The collecting official shall likewise keep separate records in connection with such past due assessments and shall remit all sums collected forthwith upon the direction of the commission.
(g) Immediately upon the confirmation of an assessment the commission shall mail a written notice to all persons who have filed written objections as hereinabove provided of the amount of the front-foot assessment finally confirmed against his property. If any such person is dissatisfied with the amount of the front-foot assessment so confirmed and shall within ten days after the mailing of the notice confirming the assessment to him may give written notice to the commission of his intent to appeal his front-foot assessment to the court of common pleas for the county in which his property is assessed, or any part thereof, is located, and shall within five days after giving such notice to the commission serve upon the commission a statement of facts upon which he bases his appeal; but no such appeal shall delay or stop the construction of the improvements or affect the validity of the front-foot assessments confirmed and not appealed. The appeal shall be tried at the next term of court as other actions at law with priority over all other cases.
(h) The commission may correct, cancel or remit any such front-foot assessment and may remit, cancel or adjust the interest or penalties of any front-foot assessment and is empowered, when in its judgment there is any irregularity, omission, error or lack of jurisdiction in any of the proceedings relating thereto, to set aside the whole of any assessment made by it and thereupon to make a reassessment.
(i) In the event the commission provides that such front-foot assessments may be paid in equal annual installments, then in that event the front-foot assessment shall be deemed to be due and payable in the equal annual installments prescribed by the commission and shall bear interest at a rate prescribed by the commission not to exceed the same rate of interest paid by the commission on monies it borrowed to make the improvements for which the assessment was levied not to exceed the interest rate limitation as prescribed by law from the date of the confirmation of the assessment roll, payable with such annual installment. Any property owner shall have the right at any time in his option to prepay in full the front-foot assessment against his property by the payment of the balance due plus interest calculated to the date of prepayment. If any property owner shall fail or neglect to pay any installment when the same becomes due and payable, then and in that event the commission may, at its option, declare all of the installments remaining unpaid at once due and payable and such property shall be sold by the county sheriff in the same manner and with the same right of redemption as are prescribed by law for the sale of land for unpaid property taxes.
(j) All moneys realized from front-foot assessments shall be kept in a separate and distinct fund either on deposit with the county treasurer or, in the discretion of the commission, in a bank located within the county in which the district is located and used first to defray the cost to the extent prescribed by the commission in the resolution providing for such front-foot assessments of the establishment and construction of the sewage lateral collection lines in connection with which the front-foot assessments were levied, or second to provide debt service on bonds issued by the district to defray the costs of such construction; and for no other purpose. In the event a district issues bond and uses only a portion of the proceeds thereof to defray all or a part of the cost of constructing sewer lateral collection lines, moneys derived from the front-foot assessments shall be used to provide debt service to the extent prescribed in the resolutions providing for the imposition of the front-foot assessments and authorizing the issuance of the bonds. Nothing contained in this article shall be construed to authorize any borrowing by a district.
(k) Moneys received by the commission from front-foot assessments and deposited by it as prescribed in the foregoing paragraph may to the extent practicable be invested in the discretion of the commission in obligations of the United States of America, obligations of any agency of the United States of America or obligations guaranteed by any agency of the United States of America, maturing in such fashion as to provide cash moneys for the principal and interest payments of bonds payable therefrom when due. All income derived from any such investment shall be applied to the same purpose to which the invested funds are applicable.
(l) In the event moneys derived from the front-foot assessments are held by the county treasurer such funds shall be secured in the same manner as county funds. In the event such funds are deposited in a bank, the amount of such deposits in excess of the amount insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation shall be secured by direct obligations of the United States or by obligations of an agency of the United States or by obligations guaranteed by an agency of the United States. Nothing herein shall be construed to prohibit the commission from requiring such additional security as it may deem appropriate.
HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 59-497; 1965 (54) 718; 1969 (56) 246; 1974 (58) 2801; 1978 Act No. 543 Sections 2, 3; 1979 Act No. 181 Section 1; 1988 Act No. 597; 1997 Act No. 34, Section 1; 2012 Act No. 192, Section 1, eff June 7, 2012.
Effect of Amendment
The 2012 amendment added the second, undesignated paragraph following item (4), regarding assessments to be levied on residential subdivisions approved for septic tanks.