(a) This division does not apply to irrigation districts, irrigation district improvement districts, fire districts, fire protection districts, or public cemetery districts, or to any proceeding otherwise subject to this division when one or more of the following situations exist:

(1) The proceedings are undertaken by a district or public corporation within one year of its incorporation.

(2) The improvement proceedings are by a chartered city, chartered county, or a county sanitation district which is governed ex officio by the board of supervisors of a chartered county, and the city, county, or district has complied with Section 19 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.

(3) All of the owners of more than 60 percent in area of the property subject to assessment for the proposed improvements have signed and filed with the clerk or secretary of the legislative body undertaking the proceedings a written petition for the improvements meeting the requirements of Section 2804.5.

(b) As used in this section, “substantially described” means that additional improvements of the same or similar nature may not be provided unless the estimated cost of the improvements does not exceed 10 percent of the estimated cost of the improvements provided in the former report.

(c) As used in this section, “owner of land” means only a person who, at the time the petition is filed with the clerk or secretary of the legislative body, appears to be the owner upon the assessor’s roll or, in the case of transfers of land, or parts thereof, subsequent to the date upon which the last assessor’s roll was prepared, appear to be the owner on the records in the county assessor’s office which the county assessor will use to prepare the next assessor’s roll. If any person signing the petition appears on the assessor’s roll or the records in the county assessor’s office as an owner of property as a joint tenant or tenant in common, or as a spouse, that property shall be counted as if all those persons had signed the petition.

(Amended by Stats. 2016, Ch. 50, Sec. 114. (SB 1005) Effective January 1, 2017.)