245.015. Owners may form levee district, where--articles of incorporation to be filed in circuit court. - Missouri Statutes

Owners may form levee district, where--articles of incorporationto be filed in circuit court.

245.015. 1. The owners of a majority of the acreage in anycontiguous body of swamp, wet or overflowed land or other property in thenature of individual or corporate franchises in this state, or land subjectto overflow, wash or bank erosion, located in one or more counties or inany city, town, or village in this state not located within any county witha charter form of government and with more than two hundred fifty thousandbut less than three hundred fifty thousand inhabitants, or in any city,town, or village of the third or fourth classification in this state whichis located within any county with a charter form of government and withmore than two hundred fifty thousand but less than three hundred fiftythousand inhabitants, may form a levee district for the purpose of havingsuch land and other property reclaimed and protected from the effects ofoverflow and other water, for sanitary or agricultural purposes, or fromthe effect of wash or bank erosion, or when the same may be conducive tothe public health, convenience or welfare, or of public utility or benefit,by levee, or otherwise, and for that purpose they may make and signarticles of association in which shall be stated: the name of thedistrict, and the number of years the same is to continue; the boundarylines of the proposed levee district; the names as listed on the countyassessor's records of the owners of land or other individual or corporatefranchise property in such district, together with a plat of the districtshowing the lands to be covered in the district; such articles shallfurther state that the owners of real estate and other such property withinthe district whose names are subscribed to such articles are willing to anddo obligate themselves to pay the tax or taxes which may be assessedagainst their respective lands or other property to pay the expense oforganizing, and of making and maintaining the improvements that may benecessary to effect the reclamation or protection of such lands or othersuch property, so formed into a levee district, and to reclaim and toprotect the same from the effects of overflow and other water, or from bankerosion or wash, and the articles of association shall contain a petitionpraying that the lands and other property described therein be declared alevee district under the provisions of this law. After the articles ofassociation and petition have been so signed the same shall be filed in theoffice of the circuit clerk of the county in which such lands and otherproperty are located; or, if such lands and other property be composed oftracts or parcels located in two or more different counties then in theoffice of the clerk of the circuit court of the county in which more ofsuch lands and other property are located than in any other county;provided, that in the event any work is to be done upon any navigablestream, the consent of the federal government shall be obtained to makesuch improvement or improvements before the actual work on the improvementsshall be begun.

2. The* modifications to this section, as enacted by theninety-second general assembly, second regular session, shall not beconstrued to enhance or limit the current law, and any interpretationthereof, with regard to where a levee district may or may not be formedwithin any county with a charter form of government and with more than twohundred fifty thousand but less than three hundred fifty thousandinhabitants nor any city, town, village, or other political subdivisioncontained therein.

(RSMo 1939 § 12492, A.L. 1947 V. II p. 226, A.L. 1965 p. 381, A.L. 1994 S.B. 600 merged with S.B. 633, A.L. 2004 H.B. 795, et al. merged with H.B. 1207)

*Word "Any" appears in original rolls of H.B. 1207, 2004.

(1971) County levee district, organized January 11, 1910, under statute requiring number of years district was to continue to be stated in the articles of association and the articles stated 50 years, ceased to exist on January 11, 1960, and the levying of taxes and other functions performed since were done without authority. Watts v. Gross (A.), 468 S.W.2d 223.