§1674.2. Notice of intention; hearing; ordering improvements

In order to construct and finance the projects referred to in R.S. 38:1674.1, the board of commissioners of any drainage district created under the provisions of this Chapter shall employ a competent engineer or firm of engineers to prepare a drainage report setting forth the area to be drained, the general plan of drainage, the total estimated cost of the project as well as the estimated annual cost of operating and maintaining such project and a proposed plan for financing such costs. The engineering report shall describe the portion or portions, if any, of the drainage area which is then drained by gravity or other means sufficient to support residential, commercial and industrial construction or inhabitation and the natural drainage therefrom flows into other portions of the drainage area, such portions of the drainage area being herein referred to as high lands, provided however, high lands shall not include lands already drained that do not flow into the drainage area. Likewise, the engineering report shall describe the portion or portions, if any, of the drainage area which is then subject to overflow and not already drained sufficient to support residential, commercial and industrial construction or inhabitation, such portions of the drainage area being herein referred to as undrained lands. After receiving and approving the engineering report, the board of commissioners shall adopt a resolution giving notice of its intention to construct such project and describe therein the portion of the district, if less than the entire district, to be drained, benefited and assessed as hereinafter provided, herein sometimes referred to as the assessment area. Said resolution shall also give notice of the board's intention to levy local or special assessments not exceeding a specified sum per acre or square foot on each assessable lot or parcel of real estate in the assessment area to pay all or part of the project cost with separate maximum assessment costs being specified for high lands and undrained lands. The total of all such local or special assessments shall represent the total cost to be assessed against the real property in the assessment area and said local or special assessments shall be calculated or prorated equally against each acre or square foot of property in the assessment area except that the high lands shall be assessed in an amount equal to twenty percent of the assessment against each acre or square foot of undrained lands in the assessment area. In order to accomplish this procedure, the local or special assessment per acre or per square foot in the undrained lands portion shall be equal to an amount determined by dividing the total project cost by the sum of the acres or square footage in the undrained lands portion plus one-fifth of the acres or square footage of the high lands portion. The assessment per acre or per square foot in the high lands portion shall be equal to one-fifth that for the undrained lands. The assessment provided for in this section against the high lands in the assessment area shall not exceed the sum of fifteen dollars per acre per year and shall not exceed a proportionate maximum assessment per square foot per year.

The notice of intention shall be published once a week for three consecutive weeks in a newspaper published within the district, or, if there be none, in some newspaper published in the parish wherein the district is located. The board of commissioners shall set forth therein the date, hour and place of a hearing at which it will proceed in open session to hear any and all objections to the proposed improvements and the manner of payment therefor; and after hearing and passing on such objections, proceed, if it so determines, to order such improvements constructed in the manner hereinafter provided; provided, however, that the board shall not order the construction of the proposed improvements in the event there is filed at the public hearing written objections to the proposed improvements signed by the owners of property representing more than one-half of the assessable area of the district, which ownership shall be determined by the conveyance records of the parish. At the hearing any landowner shall have the right to file written notice of his or its intention to drain any portion of his or its land in a manner that completely diverts all the water draining therefrom from the drainage area being created. Such land shall be excluded from assessment provided that there is also filed and bonded in a satisfactory manner as set forth in the drainage plan, an adequate plan for ensuring such self-drainage becoming operable no later than the time when any portion or phase of the proposed district becomes operable and starts pumping water to commence drainage of a portion of the district all in accordance with the engineering plan for the district.

Added by Acts 1962, No. 144, §1. Amended by Acts 1970, No. 617, §2.