SECTIONS 54715-54719 - California Statutes

GOVERNMENT CODE

SECTION 54715-54719

54715. (a) The legislative body of a local agency may by ordinance
or resolution, adopted after notice and public hearing, determine and
propose for adoption an annual assessment on each parcel of real
property within the jurisdiction of the local agency, except that the
governing body shall not impose an assessment upon a federal or
state governmental agency or another local agency.
(b) The legislative body may establish zones or areas of benefit
within the local agency and may restrict the imposition of the
assessment to areas lying within one or more of the zones or areas of
benefit established within the local agency.
(c) The benefit assessment shall be levied on a parcel, class of
improvement to property, or use of property basis, or a combination
thereof, within the boundaries of the local agency, zone, or area of
benefit. Except as provided in subdivision (d) or (e), in the case of
a benefit assessment for flood control services, the benefit
assessment may be levied on the basis of proportionate storm water
runoff from each parcel. In the case of an assessment levied pursuant
to Section 54710.3, the assessment may be levied at a uniform rate
per parcel.
The assessment may be levied against any parcel, improvement, or
use of property to which such services may be made available, whether
or not such service is actually used.
(d) Whenever a railroad, gas, water, telephone, cable television,
electric utility right-of-way, electric line right-of-way, or other
utility right-of-way is included within an area proposed to be
assessed, the railroad, gas, water, telephone, cable television,
electric utility right-of-way, electric line right-of-way, or other
utility right-of-way shall be subject to the assessment only if, and
to the extent that, it is found that it will benefit from the
service, and the railroad, gas, water, telephone, cable television,
electric utility right-of-way, electric line right-of-way, or other
utility right-of-way shall be subject to the same penalties, and the
same procedure and sale, in the event of delinquencies, as other
parcels in the assessment area. In determining whether or not the
railroad, gas, water, telephone, cable television, electric utility
right-of-way, electric line right-of-way, or other utility
right-of-way benefits from the services provided, its use as a
right-of-way for a railroad, gas, water, telephone, cable television,
electric, or other utility shall be presumed to be permanent.
(e) Proportionate storm water runoff may be used as a measure of
benefit on an undeveloped parcel of land pursuant to this section
only if, and to the extent that, it is found that it will benefit
from the service.
For the purposes of this section, an undeveloped parcel of land
means a parcel of rural land in its undeveloped natural state,
although the land may be grazed, if otherwise undisturbed, in a
manner consistent with the normally accepted grazing land management
practices for that geographic area. An undeveloped parcel of land
also includes wetlands and marshlands if undisturbed and subject to
periodic inundation. For purposes of this section, rural land is land
which is outside of an urbanized area, as designated by the most
recent federal decennial census of the United States Bureau of the
Census.

54716. (a) For the first fiscal year in which a benefit assessment
is proposed to be imposed pursuant to this chapter, the legislative
body shall cause a written report to be prepared and filed with the
clerk of the local agency which shall contain all of the following
information:
(1) A description of the service proposed to be financed through
the revenue derived from the assessment.
(2) A description of each lot or parcel of property proposed to be
subject to the benefit assessment. The assessor's parcel number
shall be a sufficient description of the parcel. The area proposed to
be subject to the benefit assessment may be less than the entire
area of the local agency.
(3) The amount of the proposed assessment for each parcel. In the
case of an assessment to be collected in installments pursuant to
paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 54711, the report shall
set forth the number of annual installments and the fiscal years
during which they are to be collected, and fix the maximum amount of
each annual installment.
(4) The basis and schedule of the assessment.
(5) In the case of an assessment levied pursuant to Section
54710.3, an identification of the assessment districts for which the
local agency has assumed responsibility for redemption fund
deficiencies and for which it proposes to rely on assessments levied
pursuant to this chapter, and a statement of the conditions under
which the assessment will actually be levied and collected in any
year.
(b) The clerk shall cause notice of the filing of the report and
of a time, date, and place of hearing thereon to be published
pursuant to Section 6066 and posted in at least three public places
within the jurisdiction of the local agency.
(c) With respect to any new or increased assessment proposed to be
levied pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 54710 or Section
54710.3, the legislative body of the local agency shall comply with
the notice, hearing, and protest procedures in Section 53753.
(d) At the hearing, the legislative body shall hear and consider
all protests. At the conclusion of the hearing, the legislative body
may adopt, revise, change, reduce, or modify the proposed assessment.
The legislative body shall make a determination upon the assessment
as described in the report or as determined at the hearing, and
shall, by ordinance or resolution, determine the proposed assessment.

54718. (a) The legislative body may provide for the collection of
the assessment or any installment of an assessment, in the same
manner, and subject to the same penalties and priority of lien as,
other charges and taxes fixed and collected by, or on behalf of the
local agency, except that if, for the first year the assessment is
levied the real property on which the assessment is levied has been
transferred or conveyed to a bona fide purchaser for value, or if a
lien of a bona fide encumbrancer for value has been created and
attaches thereon, prior to the date on which the first installment of
county taxes would become delinquent, the confirmed assessment shall
not result in a lien against the real property but shall be
transferred to the unsecured roll.
(b) If the assessments are collected by the county, the county may
deduct its reasonable costs incurred for the service before remittal
of the balance to the local agency's treasury.
(c) In the case of an assessment levied pursuant to Section
54710.3, the legislative body shall provide for the collection of the
assessment in any year only if the legislative body determines that
the levy is necessary because of a redemption fund deficiency.

54719. If assessments to be collected through annual installment
payments have been authorized pursuant to this chapter, the
legislative body may do one or more of the following:
(a) Provide for the accumulation of the money collected from the
annual installments in a fund until there is sufficient money to pay
all or part of the cost of the maintenance work for which the
installment assessments were authorized.
(b) Provide for a temporary advance to the improvement fund from
any available and unencumbered funds of the local agency to pay all
or part of the cost of the maintenance work for which the installment
assessments were authorized and direct that the advance be repaid
from the annual installments levied and collected during the fiscal
years designated.
(c) Borrow an amount necessary to finance the estimated cost of
the maintenance work for which the installment assessments were
authorized. The amount borrowed and associated financing costs shall
not exceed the amount of revenue estimated to be raised from the
annual assessments levied over the designated five fiscal years.