2016 Oklahoma Statutes
Title 82. Waters and Water Rights
§82-542. Petition - Signatures - Contents - Transfer by Supreme Court to district court.

Before any court shall establish a district as outlined in Section 541 of this title, a petition shall be filed in the office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma. Said petition, shall be signed by owners of at least fifty-one percent (51%) of the land area and by not less than fifty-one percent (51%) of the landowners in the area embraced in the proposed district. The governing body of any city or town shall have the power to instruct the mayor or president of the Board of Trustees to sign any such petition by resolution duly passed and entered on the records of the city or town, and the signature for any city or town, as provided herein, shall be accepted in lieu of the signatures of one-half (1/2) of the owners of the platted land embraced in the corporate limits of said city or town. The petition for establishing a master conservancy district encompassing land outside the corporate limits of any city or town must contain the signatures of owners of at least fifty-one percent (51%) of the land area and not less than fifty-one percent (51%) of landowners in the area located outside any city or town embraced within the proposed district.

The petition shall be in writing and shall set forth:

First: The proposed name of the district.

Second: The necessity of the proposed work and that it will be conducive to the public health, safety, convenience and welfare.

Third: A general description of the purpose of the contemplated improvement and a map of the territory to be included in the proposed district. Said description may be given by legal subdivisions or metes and bounds, but it shall be sufficient to accurately describe the outside boundary of the said territory to be included in the district. Said map and description of outside boundary shall be the basis upon which the court makes its findings of jurisdiction, and if the court finds that the required percentage of signatures of owners of land as shown by outside boundaries of the map attached to the petition have been filed, then the court shall have jurisdiction of the said district subject to appeal as provided herein. Said district need not be contiguous provided it be so situated that the public health, safety, convenience or welfare will be promoted by the organization as a single district of the territory described and provided further that the intervening territory be not benefited by the construction of the works in the district so formed.

Fourth: Said petition shall pray for the organization of the district by the name proposed.

The Clerk of the Supreme Court shall docket said petition as an original action in said Court under the name:

In re: Conservancy District No. ______, and all such proceedings shall successively be numbered serially from No. 1 upward.

The said Supreme Court shall within ten (10) days after the filing of such petition determine which district court of said State is most convenient near the center or middle of said district and can hear and determine said petition with greatest convenience to the people within said proposed district, having in view the customary routes of travel; and shall thereupon refer and assign said petition and proceedings to such district court and direct hearing, determination, control and administration of such proceedings as an original action therein, conformable to laws. Provided, that where all of proposed conservancy district is in one judicial district, the proceeding shall be filed originally with some court clerk in such judicial district in a county embraced within the proposed conservancy district and said court shall exercise complete jurisdiction.

No petition with the requisite signatures shall be declared null and void on account of alleged defects, if the court has once obtained jurisdiction, but the court may at any time after obtaining jurisdiction permit the petition to be amended in form and substance to conform to the facts by correcting any errors in the description of the territory, or in any other particular; and said petition may be further amended by including in the proposed district additional area; Provided, that there shall be sufficient signatures on the original petition, together with those upon any such amendment, to meet the requirements of inclusion of such area had the same been included in the original petition.

Several exactly similar petitions or duplicate copies of the same petition for the organization of the same district may be filed and shall together be regarded as one petition. All such petitions filed prior to the first hearing of said petition shall be considered by the court as though filed with the first petition placed on file.

In determining when a sufficient number of landowners have signed the petition, the names of the owners of land as shown by the tax roll of the county shall be conclusive for all purposes of this act except that any successor in title to any owner so shown may sign for such person or persons named on the tax roll if it be appropriately indicated: Provided, if any city or town or any part thereof lies within any such proposed district, or if any such city or town has in such district or on any stream below any such improvements any water dams and reservoirs which will be rendered permanently benefited by such improvements, then all property in such city or town shall contribute to the cost of such improvements by contributing to the cost to such city or town as a whole in that proportion which the assessed value of each assessed unit of real property bears to the total assessed value of the real property in such city or town.

Nothing herein provided shall affect the legality of any district created prior to the effective date hereof; and all proceedings for formation of districts, and all districts established, pursuant to former law are hereby validated as though fully conforming to the provisions hereof.

Laws 1923-24, c. 139, p. 162, § 4; Laws 1957, p. 555, § 4; Laws 1961, p. 622, § 6; Laws 1963, c. 271, § 2, emerg. eff. June 13, 1963. der 82542