Section 358.22. Special assessments and connection fees.

  1.  The board of trustees of a sanitary district may provide for payment of all or any portion of the costs of acquiring, locating, laying out, constructing, reconstructing, repairing, changing, enlarging, or extending conduits, ditches, channels, outlets, drains, sewers, laterals, treatment plants, pumping plants, and other necessary adjuncts thereto, by assessing all, or any portion of the costs, on adjacent property according to the benefits derived. For the purposes of this chapter, the board of trustees may define “adjacent property” as all that included within a designated benefited district or districts to be fixed by the board, which may be all of the property located within the sanitary district or any lesser portion of that property. It is not a valid objection to a special assessment that the improvement for which the assessment is levied is outside the limits of the sanitary district, but a special assessment shall not be made upon property situated outside of the sanitary district. Special assessments pursuant to this section shall be in proportion to the special benefits conferred upon the property, and not in excess of the benefits, and an assessment shall not exceed twenty-five percent of the value of the property at the time of levy. The value of a property is the present fair market value of the property with the proposed public improvements completed. Payment of installments of a special assessment against property used and assessed as agricultural property shall be deferred upon the filing of a request by the owner in the same manner and under the same procedures as provided in chapter 384 for special assessments by cities.

  2.  The assessments may be made to extend over a period not to exceed fifteen years, payable in as nearly equal annual installments as practicable. A majority vote of the board of trustees is requisite and sufficient for any action required by the board of trustees under this section.

  3.  Subject to the limitations otherwise stated in this section, a sanitary district organized under this chapter has all of the powers to specially assess the costs of improvements described in this section, including the power to issue special assessment bonds, warrants, project notes, or other forms of interim financing obligations, which cities have under the laws of this state.

  4.  Subject to the limitations otherwise stated in this section, the board of trustees may establish one or more benefited districts and schedules of fees for the connection of property to the sanitary sewer facilities of a sanitary district. Each person whose property will be connected to the sanitary sewer facilities of a sanitary district shall pay a connection fee to the sanitary district, which may include the equitable cost of extending sanitary sewer service to the benefited district and reasonable interest from the date of construction to the date of payment. In establishing the benefited districts and establishing and implementing the schedules of fees, the board of trustees shall act in accordance with the powers granted to a city in section 384.38, subsection 3, and the procedures in that subsection. However, all fees collected under this subsection shall be paid to the sanitary district and the moneys collected as fees shall be used only by the sanitary district to finance improvements or extensions to its sanitary sewer facilities, to reimburse the sanitary district for funds disbursed by its board of trustees to finance improvements or extensions to its sanitary sewer facilities, or to pay debt service on obligations issued to finance improvements or extensions to its sanitary sewer facilities. This subsection does not apply when a sanitary district annexation plan or petition includes annexation of an area adjoining the district or a petition has not been presented for a sewer connection. Until the annexation becomes effective or the annexation plan or petition is abandoned, the state mandate contained in section 455B.172, subsections 3, 4, and 5, shall not apply unless the property owner requests to be connected to the sanitary district’s sewer facilities and voluntarily pays the connection fee.

[C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §358.22]

87 Acts, ch 197, §4

; 93 Acts, ch 57, §1

; 97 Acts, ch 62, §2

; 2015 Acts, ch 29, §47

Section amended