Article IV. Special Sewer Assessment Districts.

The county council may create from time to time within the Washington Suburban Sanitary District in the county special sewer assessment districts to provide the extension of sewer facilities and the levying of benefit assessments therein for the financing of the extension. The districts may be created when the county council shall have determined that any extension in the six-year sewer program, as approved by it pursuant to the provisions of title 7 of article 29 of the Annotated Code of Maryland, as amended, is necessary for the implementation of programs for staging the orderly growth of the county; for service to programmed construction of other public facilities in the county; or for the elimination of public health and sanitation problems and that alternative methods of funding are necessary to achieve any of these objectives. The district shall encompass all properties which could be served by the programmed extension, and the construction of the extension is hereby declared to be a general benefit to all these properties.

Prior to the establishing of any assessment district and the levying of any assessment, the county council shall hold a public hearing thereon after thirty (30) days' notice thereof published in a newspaper of general circulation in the county. Notice of the time and place of the hearing, together with a description of the programmed extension and the district to be established shall be mailed to the owner of each parcel of land proposed to be assessed for benefit received from the programmed extension, such mailing to be made by depositing a written notice in the United States mail at least two (2) weeks before the date of the hearing and to be to the owners and to their addresses as the same appear on the real property assessment records of the county. Prior to the hearing, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission shall be requested to furnish the county council with an engineering determination of the maximum area limits which could be served by the programmed extension; the estimated cost and time for construction of the extension; and the amounts and sources of funds available to the commission to defray the cost of the construction. If such information is not furnished, the hearing shall proceed on the basis of the information contained in the latest commission six-year capital improvements program approved under the provisions of title 7 of article 29 of the Annotated Code of Maryland, as amended.

If, after the hearing provided for in this article, the council shall determine for any of the reasons set forth in section 45-27 that a special sewer assessment district is required for the public interest, health, safety or welfare, it shall by law designate the area of such assessment district and direct that the programmed extension be undertaken pursuant to agreements entered into with the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission for the construction of such facilities under the authority contained in section 1-206 of article 29 of the Annotated Code of Maryland, as amended. The council at or about the time of enactment of such law shall by resolution describe generally the work to be done, determine the benefit to all properties affected thereby and estimate the cost to be borne by benefitted properties.

Upon completion of the construction, the council shall by resolution assess the benefit in terms of resulting costs to the county thereof, including actual cost of publication of notices, conduct of hearings, advertising for bids, engineering and all costs of financing incurred prior to the adoption of the resolution, to all land encompassed within the assessment district and shall levy such assessment thereon for the recovery of the benefit or portion thereof on either an ad valorem basis or on a per-acre basis on all of the land. Notice of such assessment shall be given by placing a true copy of the resolution in the United States mail addressed to the owner of the property as shall appear on the real property assessment records of the county giving opportunity for objections thereto within thirty (30) days of such deposit in the mail. Such assessment shall be final; provided, that any person aggrieved by such assessment may appeal the same to the circuit court for the county within thirty (30) days after the expiration of the time for objection. The proceeds of the assessment may be expended by the county council for or in aid of the purposes of this article or may be paid over to the commission for these purposes. In the event the assessments levied together with all capital contributions or other funds received by either the county or the commission for such extension exceed the original capital costs of the completed project, such excess funds shall be applied as credits toward payment of any unpaid assessments or as refunds in whole or in part of assessments fully paid, as applicable.

Nothing herein is intended to be a substitute for any other method or system for financing of projects, particularly those in section 5-101 of article 29 of the Annotated Code of Maryland, as amended, it being intended to provide for a supplementary source of funds where the scheduled construction has been determined to be needed by the county council for the public purposes of this article. Nothing in this chapter authorizes the county council to construct or maintain sewer systems. Assessments levied in an assessment district under this chapter shall be used only for financing sewer systems within that district or related to the district or the system therein.