2006 Utah Code - 17A-2-535 — Validation of organization proceedings -- Notice of proposed corrections, amendments, or changes in assessment of benefits -- Hearing by county legislative body of report of board of trustees -- Board of equalization -- Increase of drainage benefits and taxes -- Lien.

     17A-2-535.   Validation of organization proceedings -- Notice of proposed corrections, amendments, or changes in assessment of benefits -- Hearing by county legislative body of report of board of trustees -- Board of equalization -- Increase of drainage benefits and taxes -- Lien.
     Whenever it appears to the board of trustees that any proceedings for the organization of a drainage district have not been strictly in compliance with law, or if any lands within the district have been erroneously assessed for benefits or taxes, or inequitably assessed for benefits or taxes, or that any assessment of damages or benefits under this part has been made in error as to description, ownership, or acreage intended to be assessed, or if it appears to such board of trustees that the assessment of benefits has been inequitably distributed among the various parcels of land, or unjustly equalized as between the various parcels of land within the district, or that any tract of land, easement or interest in land, public or private road, railroad or railroad right-of-way, has been included in, or omitted from, any assessment roll of benefits or taxes by reason of clerical error or otherwise, or that proper notice or notices as required by law has not or have not been given, such noncompliance, error, omission or want of notice shall not invalidate such organization, neither shall any such assessments of benefits or taxes be lost to the district in case of any omission, nor shall the board of trustees and the county legislative body be held to have lost jurisdiction to correct such error or omission, or to readjust such assessments of benefits or to redistribute such assessment of benefits upon the various parcels of land and interest in lands within such district, and to justly equalize the same as between various parcels of land and interest in lands within the district, but the board of trustees of such district may report any such conditions and recommend such corrections and changes as such board of trustees considers necessary to remedy the same; and upon receiving such report and recommendation the county legislative body may make such corrections, amendments or changes in the assessment rolls of benefits and taxes, or correct any error, omission, mistake, inequality or want of sufficient notice, as may be just; provided, that when any correction, amendment or change is sought to be made, notice of such proposed correction, amendment or change in the assessment of benefits and taxes shall be given to all persons affected thereby, in the following manner:
     The board of trustees of the drainage district shall file with the clerk of the county legislative body of the county wherein the drainage district is located, a verified report containing the proposed corrections, amendments, and/or changes in the assessments of benefits and taxes with their recommendation with respect thereto, to the county legislative body. The county legislative body shall, at its first meeting thereafter, fix a time and place for a hearing on the report and shall cause a notice of the hearing thereon to be published three times if in a daily newspaper, twice if in a semiweekly newspaper and once if in a weekly newspaper, not less than 15 days before the hearing, and when the residence or post-office address of any landowner, whose assessment of benefits or taxes is to be corrected, amended or changed is known the clerk of the county legislative body shall cause a copy of the notice to be sent by United States mail to such landowner, not less than 15 days before the time fixed for the hearing on the report. The notice shall state generally the purpose of the hearing and the time and place where the county legislative body shall meet as a board of equalization to hear and determine any complaint made against such report, corrections, amendments and changes in the assessment roll of benefits and taxes.
     The county legislative body at the time and place fixed in the notice shall sit as a board of equalization and it shall make and finally determine such corrections, amendments and changes in

the roll of assessment of benefits and taxes, as it shall determine after such hearing, and thereafter all such lands, easements or interest in lands shall be assessed in accordance with the assessment roll as thus corrected, amended, or changed; and such changed assessment roll of benefits and taxes shall be the basis of lien upon the parcels of land or interest in land, as corrected, amended or changed, for all district indebtedness. Whenever it shall be made to appear to the board of trustees of the drainage district that any owner or operator of any land within the drainage district has so changed the use of such land so as to increase the benefits received by such land by reason of the construction, maintenance, and operation of the drainage system, the board of trustees of the drainage district shall view each tract of such land and shall carefully consider the increased benefits such tract of land is receiving from the construction, maintenance and operation of the drainage system and shall assess such tract of land in accordance with the increased benefits received by it. After such assessment is made, the secretary of the board of trustees shall transmit the same to the county legislative body and the county legislative body shall within 15 days after receipt thereof, cause not less than 15 days notice to be sent by mail to each landowner in the district whose benefits have thus been increased, showing the amount of the benefits as thus increased on the land owned by the landowner within the district; and stating therein the time and place where the county legislative body shall meet as a board of equalization to hear and determine complaints made against such increased assessments. At such hearing any landowner upon whose lands the benefits are thus increased may appear and oppose such increase or any part thereof. The county legislative body shall sit as a board of equalization of the increased drainage benefits and taxes, and shall equalize and determine the assessment of benefits and taxes to be made and levied upon such tract of land within the district. Such increased assessment of benefits shall be the basis of a lien upon such lands within the district for all district indebtedness and taxes.

Amended by Chapter 254, 2000 General Session
Amended by Chapter 1, 2000 General Session