Section 468.184. Land classification and assessment in district.

  1.  a.  (1)  When a levee district shall have been located and finally established; or

  (2)  When the required proceedings have been taken to enlarge, extend, strengthen, raise, relocate, reconstruct, or improve any existing levee; or

  (3)  When the required proceedings have been held to annex additional lands to said levee district or to exclude or eliminate lands from said levee district; or

  (4)  When a plan of the United States government for the construction of any levee, or a portion of a levee, in said levee district, or for the enlarging, extending, strengthening, raising, relocating, reconstructing, or improving any existing levee, or a portion thereof, in accordance with any such plan in said levee district, has been heretofore or hereafter adopted by such levee district under the provisions of sections 468.201 through 468.216; or

  (5)  When the board shall, as authorized by section 468.65, determine that the assessments of benefits of said levee district against the lands in said levee district are generally inequitable the board may by resolution, or if a petition is filed by more than one-third of the owners, including corporations, of land within said levee district and who in the aggregate own more than one-third of the value of the land and land improvements in said levee district as the value thereof is then shown by the general tax records of the county or counties in which such land and land improvements are located, requesting the board to do so, the board shall order the lands in said levee district and the improvements on the land in said levee district classified or reclassified in accordance with the assessed taxable value of said land and land improvements as the same are then shown and as the same may be thereafter shown by the assessment roll of the county or counties in which said land and land improvements are located.

  b.  The assessed taxable value of any land, including land improvements exempt from general taxation but subject to assessment for levee purposes, shall be determined by the county assessor who shall make such determination in accordance with the rules of assessment applicable to adjacent lands and without any additional compensation therefor.

  2.  a.  If the board orders classification or reclassification of lands as authorized in subsection 1, the board shall fix a time and place for a hearing to be held upon the action of the board in ordering such classification or reclassification, which hearing shall be held at the county seat of the county having the largest acreage in said levee district. The board shall cause notice of the time and place of such hearing to be served by the county auditor or auditors upon each person whose name appears as owner of lands or land improvements within the levee district in the transfer books of the auditor’s office in the county or counties in which said levee district is located, naming that person, and also upon the person or persons in actual occupancy of any tract of land or land improvements located in said levee district, without naming that person or persons. Such notice shall be for the same time and served in the same manner as is provided for the establishment of a levee district, and such notice shall state:

  (1)  The aggregate estimated costs and expenses which the board proposes to assess under such classification or reclassification;

  (2)  The total aggregate assessed taxable value of all lands and land improvements in said levee district;

  (3)  That the said classification or reclassification of benefits will be based on the assessed taxable value of all lands and improvements to lands located in said levee district;

  (4)  That each tract of land and each land improvement in said levee district will be assessed for its pro rata share of said costs and expenses based upon the ratio that the assessed value of each tract of land and the assessed value of each land improvement bears to the total assessed taxable value of all lands and all land improvements in said district; and

  (5)  That all objections to said method of classification or reclassification shall be in writing and filed with the auditor of the county in which said land or land improvements are located before the time set for said hearing or with the board of trustees of said district at or before the time set for such hearing.

  b.  The notice need not show the amount of such costs and expenses to be apportioned to each such owner or to any particular tract of land or land improvement within such levee district.

  3.  If at or before the time set for said hearing as to such classification or reclassification, there shall have been filed with the county auditor, or auditors in case the district extends into more than one county, or with said board, a remonstrance or remonstrances or objections to such method of classification or reclassification signed by owners of land and land improvements in the levee district aggregating sixty percent of the total assessed value of the lands plus land improvements in said district as shown by the taxing records in said county or counties in which said district is located, the board shall abandon the alternative method of classification or reclassification herein authorized. The board may then proceed to classify the lands in said levee district as authorized under sections 468.38 through 468.44 or may proceed to reclassify the same as authorized under section 468.65 unless said remonstrances and objections filed as above provided are filed by a majority of the landowners in the levee district and these remonstrants and objectors in the aggregate own seventy percent or more of the acreage of lands in the levee district and, in writing, object to any reclassification of any kind, then the board shall not reclassify the lands within the district under the provision of this section nor shall the same be reclassified under the provisions of section 468.65.

  4.  At the time fixed or at any adjourned hearing if the remonstrances and objections filed at or before the hearing are not signed by sufficient number of owners, or the owners signing such remonstrances and objections do not meet the requirements hereinabove provided, then the board shall fully consider all objections and remonstrances and shall make a determination as to whether or not the costs and expenses shall be assessed:

  a.  By the alternative method hereinabove set forth; or

  b.  As provided by sections 468.38 through 468.44; or

  c.  That the land should be reclassified as provided in section 468.65; or

  d.  On the basis of a then existing classification of lands.

  5.  If the board shall determine that the cost and expenses shall be assessed on the basis of assessed taxable value as provided in subsections 1 through 4, then such basis shall be used for all future assessments made for the purposes of said levee district except if said assessed taxable value of lands and land improvements in said levee district may be changed or revised by the county assessor in the county or counties in which the same are located for general tax purposes, then any such revision made in the assessed taxable value by any such county assessor shall automatically constitute a revision of the classification of such land or land improvements for future assessments made by the board for the purpose of said levee district.

  6.  In lieu of the hearing provided for in subsections 1 through 5, the board may, and if the petition of owners provided for in subsections 1 through 5 so asks, the board shall call for an election for the purpose of determining the question of classification on the basis of assessed value of lands and land improvements. The question may be submitted at a regular election of the district or at a special election called for that purpose. It shall not be mandatory for the county commissioner of elections to conduct the elections, however provisions of sections 49.43 through 49.47 and of subchapter III of this chapter, insofar as the same are applicable, shall govern all such elections, and the question to be submitted shall be set forth in the notice of election. If sixty percent of the votes cast be in favor of the proposed change in assessment, it shall become effective for all future assessments as heretofore provided in this section. If the question should fail, no new election on the subject may be called for a period of one year.

  7.  When a levee district has been established and constructed, as an alternative to the other methods prescribed by law, upon reclassification, the levee district may adopt a method of classification and assessment uniform as to all land in the district, including railroad land, public highways and other public land and land exempt from general taxation, based on the total amount to be assessed divided by the total acres within the district. This method of classification and assessment may be adopted either by hearing or by election and shall become effective as heretofore provided in this section.

  8.  When a drainage district or drainage and levee district has been established and constructed, and after the lands therein have been classified in accordance with the provisions of sections 468.39, 468.40, and 468.41 or reclassified in accordance with section 468.65, the district may adopt methods of assessment for maintenance, repair, and operation of said district uniform as to all land in the district in the same manner and by the same procedures as prescribed in subsections 1 through 7 of this section. Provided, however, that only those lands drained by respective mains and laterals shall be assessed for maintenance, repair, and operation of said mains and laterals, and provided further that this alternate method of assessment shall not be applied to making improvements in the drainage system.

  9.  Following the adoption of any alternative method of classification or assessment as provided in this section, the same shall continue in effect until such time as the method is changed pursuant to this section or to section 468.65.

  10.  a.  All proceedings taken prior to July 1, 1968, purporting to establish or reestablish a drainage or levee district or districts, or to enlarge or change the boundaries of any drainage or levee district, and any assessments not heretofore declared invalid by any court, are hereby legalized, validated, and confirmed.

  b.  The foregoing shall not be construed to affect any litigation that may be pending at the time this section becomes effective involving the establishment, reestablishment, enlargement, or change in boundaries or any assessments of drainage or levee districts.

[C71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §455.197]

89 Acts, ch 126, §2

2011 Acts, ch 25, §122