HF 2325 (LSB 5732YH (4) 88)

HOUSE FILE 2325

BY  MAXWELL

A BILL FOR

An Act providing for a notice regarding a hearing to determine how land within a drainage or levee district is to be classified for purposes of assessing that land.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 468.45, Code 2020, is amended to read as follows:
   468.45  Notice of hearing.
   1.  The board shall fix a time for a hearing upon the report of the commissioners, and the auditor shall cause notice to be served upon each person whose name appears as owner, naming the person, and also upon the person or persons in actual occupancy of any tract of land without naming the person or persons, of the day and hour of such hearing, which.
   2.  The notice shall be for the same time and served in the same manner as is provided for the establishment of a levee or drainage or levee district, and including as provided in sections 468.14 through 468.18, and shall state include all of the following:
   a.  A statement of the amount of the assessment of costs and expenses of construction apportioned to each owner upon each forty-acre tract or less, and that. However, the statement is not required to be published as required in section 468.15, if it is posted in the office of the county auditor and on the county’s internet site. The county auditor shall provide a copy of the statement upon request.
   b.  A statement that all objections thereto to the report must be in writing and filed with the auditor at or before the time set for such the hearing.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
   BILL’S PROVISIONS. This bill amends provisions requiring a county board of supervisors (board) to provide notice of a hearing regarding a report to classify tracts of land within a drainage or levee district (district) as established or proposed to be established by the board. The notice is required to be delivered to each owner of land within the district and also by publication in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the district is located. The bill provides that the newspaper publication is not required to include a statement listing the amount of the assessment of costs and expenses of construction of improvements as apportioned to each owner, if it is posted in the office of the county auditor and on the county’s internet site. The county auditor must provide a copy of the statement upon request. 
   BACKGROUND. A district is established after a board receives a petition by two or more persons who own land in the proposed district (Code sections 468.7 and 468.8), the board appoints an engineer to prepare a report (Code sections 468.10 through 468.12), and the board holds a public hearing on the matter after providing notice to each landowner in the district and by newspaper publication (Code sections 468.14 and 468.15) based on procedures relating to the publication of county notices for elections or other official matters (Code section 331.305). Before or after the district is established, the board must appoint a commission to prepare a report determining the classification for each 40-acre tract or fraction of that tract in the district which is used to impose an assessment based on benefits from improvements to be made to that tract (Code sections 468.13 and 468.38 through 468.44). The board must hold a hearing regarding the commissioner’s report which is conducted in the same manner as when the district is established. However, the notice for classification must also include a statement listing the amount of the assessment of costs and expenses of construction of improvements as apportioned to each owner for each tract or fraction of a tract and the filing of objections.