311.7 Improvement by private funds.

1. a. The owner or a group of owners of not less than seventy-five percent of the lands adjacent to, or abutting upon any secondary road may, on or before October 1 of any year, petition the board of supervisors of their county for the improvement of the road, and for the assessment of not less than fifty percent, or a greater portion as provided in the petition, of the cost of the improvement, to the lands adjacent to, or abutting upon the road. When the petition has been filed, the board of supervisors shall review the project proposed by the petition and may accept or reject the proposed project. If the board of supervisors accepts the petition, the board shall include the project in the secondary road construction program of the county and establish a priority for the completion of the project.

b. The board of supervisors shall proceed with the construction and completion of the project in accordance with its assigned priority and under the same procedure as is prescribed generally for the improvement of secondary roads by assessment, and shall establish a special secondary road assessment district and assess against the lands included in the district not less than fifty percent, or a greater portion as provided in the petition, of the engineer’s estimated cost of the improvements of the road included in the project against all the lands adjacent to or abutting upon the road.

c. However, if the owners of all the lands included in any special secondary road assessment district under this section, subscribe and deposit with the county treasurer an amount not less than fifty percent, or a greater portion as provided in the petition, of the engineer’s estimated cost of the improvement of the road included in the project, the board of supervisors shall not establish the special assessment district, but shall accept the donations in lieu of an assessment, and shall otherwise proceed to the improvement of the road.

2. The total expenditure of secondary road funds of the county in any year for or on account of special secondary road assessment district projects on local secondary roads under this section shall not exceed the total secondary road funds legally expendable for construction on local secondary roads in the county in the year.

3. Upon the completion of the road, and the satisfaction of all claims in relation to the road, any balance then remaining of the funds provided by the sponsors shall be returned to them according to their respective interests, providing all guarantees made by the sponsors have been fulfilled.

[C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, §4747, 4753; C46, §311.4, 311.10; C50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §311.7]

83 Acts, ch 123, §112, 209; 85 Acts, ch 143, §6; 86 Acts, ch 1024, §1; 2010 Acts, ch 1061, §180

Referred to in §331.429