2005 California Water Code Sections 71630-71637 Article 2. Standby Charges

71630.  The district by ordinance may fix on or before the third
Monday of August, in each fiscal year, a water standby assessment or
availability charge in the district, in any portion thereof, or in
any improvement district, to which water is made available by the
district, whether the water is actually used or not.
71631.  The standby assessment or availability charge shall not
exceed ten dollars ($10) per acre per year for each acre of land on
which the charge is levied or ten dollars ($10) per year for a parcel
less than one acre.
71631.5.  Notwithstanding Section 71631, in any improvement district
situated within the Eastern Municipal Water District, the Western
Municipal Water District of Riverside County, the Elsinore Valley
Municipal Water District, the Rincon Del Diablo Municipal Water
District, the Ramona Municipal Water District, the Rainbow Municipal
Water District, or the Lake Hemet Municipal Water District, the
standby assessment or availability charge shall not exceed thirty
dollars ($30) per acre per year for land on which the charge is
levied or thirty dollars ($30) per year for a parcel less than one
acre.  In any such improvement district, the proceeds from any
standby assessment or availability charge in excess of ten dollars
($10) per acre per year or ten dollars ($10) per year for a parcel
less than one acre shall only be used for the purposes of such
improvement district.
   This section, applicable only to the Eastern Municipal Water
District, the Western Municipal Water District of Riverside County,
the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, the Rincon Del Diablo
Municipal Water District, the Ramona Municipal Water District, the
Rainbow Municipal Water District, and the Lake Hemet Municipal Water
District, is necessary because of the unique and special water
management problems of those areas included within those districts.
71631.6.  Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 71631, in any
improvement district situated within the Otay Municipal Water
District in San Diego County, the standby assessment or availability
charge shall not exceed thirty dollars ($30) per acre per year for
land on which the charge is levied or ten dollars ($10) per year for
a parcel less than one acre.  In any such improvement district the
proceeds from any standby assessment or availability charge in excess
of ten dollars ($10) per acre per year shall only be used for the
purposes of such improvement district.
   This section, applicable only to the Otay Municipal Water District
of San Diego County is necessary because of the unique and special
water management problems of the area included within such district.
71631.7.  (a) Notwithstanding Section 71631, in any improvement
district situated within the San Luis Rey Municipal Water District,
the standby assessment or availability charge shall not exceed thirty
dollars ($30) per acre per year for land on which the charge is
levied or thirty dollars ($30) per year for a parcel less than one
acre.  In  the improvement district, the proceeds from any standby
assessment or availability charge in excess of ten dollars ($10) per
acre per year or ten dollars ($10) per year for a parcel less than
one acre shall only be used for the purposes of that improvement
district.
   (b) This section, applicable only to the San Luis Rey Municipal
Water District, is necessary because of the unique and special water
management problems of those areas included within that district.
   (c) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2015, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, which is enacted before January 1, 2015, deletes or extends
that date.
71632.  The ordinance fixing a standby assessment or availability
charge shall be adopted by the board only after adoption of a
resolution setting forth the particular schedule or schedules of
charges or assessments proposed to be established by ordinance and
after a hearing on said resolution.  The secretary shall cause notice
of a time and place of hearing thereon to be published, pursuant to
Section 6066 of the Government Code, prior to the date set for
hearing, in a newspaper of general circulation printed and published
within the district, if there is one, and if not, then in such paper
printed and published in the county, and shall cause a notice in
writing to be mailed, prior to the date set for hearing, to each
person to whom a parcel of real property described in such proposed
assessment or charge is assessed on the last equalized assessment
roll.  Such notice shall be mailed to the address shown on the last
equalized assessment roll or known to the secretary.
   At the time, stated in the notice, the board shall hear and
consider all objections or protests, if any, to the resolution
referred to in the notice and may continue the hearing from time to
time.  Upon the conclusion of the hearing the board may adopt,
revise, change, reduce or modify an assessment or charge or overrule
any or all objections.  The board shall make its determination upon
each assessment or charge as described in the resolution which
determination shall be final.
71633.  The ordinance fixing a standby assessment or availability
charge may establish schedules varying the charges according to land
uses, water uses, and degree of water availability.
71634.  On or before the third Monday in August, the board shall
furnish in writing to the board of supervisors and the county auditor
of each affected county a description of each parcel of land within
the district upon which a standby charge is to be levied and
collected for the current fiscal year, together with the amount of
standby charge fixed by the district on each parcel of land.
71635.  The board shall direct that, at the time and in the manner
required by law for the levying of taxes for county purposes the
board of supervisors shall levy, in addition to any other tax it
levies, the standby charge in the amounts for the respective parcels
fixed by the board.
71636.  All county officers charged with the duty of collecting
taxes shall collect district standby charges with the regular tax
payments to the county.  Said charges shall be collected in the same
form and manner as county taxes are collected, and shall be paid to
the district.
71637.  Charges fixed by the district shall be a lien on all the
property benefited thereby.  Liens for said charges shall be of the
same force and effect as other liens for taxes, and their collection
may be enforced by the same means as provided for the enforcement of
liens for state and county taxes.