As used in this chapter:

(1) "Assessment" means an assessment voluntarily agreed upon by a majority of the owners of real property within an improvement district and representing at least sixty-six percent of the assessed value of all real property within the improvement district. The assessment must be made upon all real property located within the district, other than property constituting improvements within the meaning of this section, and based upon assessed value, front footage, area, per parcel basis, the value of improvements to be constructed within the district, or a combination of them, as the basis is determined by the governing body of the county. An assessment imposed upon real property with the consent of the owner remains valid and enforceable in accordance with the provisions of this chapter even if there is a later subdivision and transfer of the property or a part of it. An improvement plan may provide for a change in the basis of assessment upon the subdivision and transfer of real property.

(2) "Improvements" means recreational facilities, pedestrian facilities, sidewalks, storm drains, or water course facilities or improvements, the relocation, construction, widening, and paving of roads and streets, any building or other facilities for public use, any public works eligible for financing pursuant to Section 6-21-50, and may include the acquisition of necessary easements and land and all things incidental to the provision of the above. These improvements may be designated by the governing body as public works eligible for revenue bond financing pursuant to Section 6-21-50, and the improvements, taken in the aggregate, may be designated by the governing body as a "system" of related projects within the meaning of Section 6-21-15.

(3) "Improvement district" means an area within the county designated by the governing body pursuant to the provisions of this chapter and within which an improvement plan is to be accomplished.

(4) "Improvement plan" means the overall plan by which the governing body proposes to effect improvements within an improvement district to preserve property values, prevent deterioration, and preserve the tax base.

(5) "Owner" means a person twenty-one years of age or older, or the proper legal representative for a person younger than twenty-one years of age, and a firm or corporation, who or which owns legal title to a present possessory interest in real estate equal to a life estate or greater (expressly excluding leaseholds, easements, equitable interests, inchoate rights, and future interest) and who owns, at the date of the petition or written consent, at least an undivided one-tenth interest in a single tract and whose name appears on the county tax records as an owner of real estate, and a duly organized group whose tax interest is at least equal to a one-tenth interest in a single tract. If a firm or person has a leasehold interest requiring it or him to pay all county taxes, the agreement is not applicable to charges of the assessment of the district as only the owner has the right to petition on the assessment charge for the improvement district.

(6) "Governing body" means the governing body of a county.

HISTORY: 1993 Act No. 99, Section 1, eff June 15, 1993; 1998 Act No. 389, Sections 1, 5, eff June 15, 1998.

Effect of Amendment

The 1998 amendments rewrote subsections (1) and (2); and added subsection (6).