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The Board of Revision of Assessments shall consist of the Mayor, the Director of Law and the Director of Finance and Public Record. The Mayor shall be the President of the Board and the Director of Finance and Public Record shall be the Secretary thereof. It shall meet at such times and places as is provided by its rules and shall hear all claims and objections as to the character of all improvements to be paid for in part or in whole by special assessments, the necessity therefor, and the equity of the assessments as provided in the assessment report. A majority of those constituting the Board of Revision of Assessments shall have power to determine all complaints and objections submitted to it, and as to each improvement the Board shall, after such hearing amend, equalize, and adjust the assessment report, and shall report its findings as to the necessity for the improvements and any amendments it directs in the assessments to the Council.
An owner of a lot or of land bounding and abutting upon a proposed improvement claiming that he will sustain damage by reason of the improvement shall present such claim to the Board of Revision of Assessments within two weeks after the service of notice of the completion of the publication hereinbefore provided. Such claim shall be in writing and shall set forth the amount of damages claimed, with a general description of the property with respect to which it is claimed the damage will accrue. Any owner who fails so to do shall be deemed to have waived such damages and shall be barred from filing a claim or receiving damages therefor. This provision shall apply to all damages which will obviously result from the improvement, but shall not deprive the owner of his right to recover damages arising without his fault, from acts of the City or of its agents. The Board of Revision of Assessments shall report to the Council all such claims for damages filed with it.
Whenever the Board of Revision of Assessments shall have made its final report to the Council as to any improvement, the Council, if it determines that the improvement shall proceed, shall pass an ordinance levying the assessment as reported by the Board of Revision of Assessments and directing that the improvement proceed.
In such ordinance it shall be sufficient to describe the lots and lands abutting upon the improvement and to be assessed therefor, as all the lots and lands bounding and abutting upon such improvement between and including the termini of the improvement; and in describing lands which do not abut it shall be sufficient to describe the lots by their appropriate lot numbers, and the lands by metes and bounds; and this rule of description shall apply in all proceedings in which lots and lands are to be charged with special assessments.
Special assessments shall be payable by the owners of the property assessed at the time stipulated in the ordinance, and shall be a lien from the date of the assessment upon the respective lots and parcels of land assessed enforceable in the manner provided by general law.
At the time of the passage of the ordinance determining to proceed with the improvement as hereinbefore provided, the Council shall determine whether the claims for damages so filed shall be judicially inquired into before commencing or after the completion of the proposed improvement. If it decides that the damages shall be assessed before commencing the improvement, the Director of Law shall then make a written application to a court of competent jurisdiction for inquiry into, and assessment of such damages, which inquiry and assessment shall be confined to such claims.
When the Council determines to assess the damages after the completion of the improvement for which a claim for damages has been filed as hereinbefore provided, the Director of Law shall within ten (10) days after the completion of the improvement make written application as hereinbefore provided in the case of the ascertainment of damages before the improvement was made, and the same proceedings shall be had.
No person who claims damages arising from any cause shall commence a suit therefor against the City until he shall have filed a claim for such damages with the Director of Finance and Public Record and sixty (60) days shall have elapsed thereafter, to enable the City to take such steps as it may deem proper to settle or adjust the claim; but this provision shall not apply to an application for an injunction or other proceeding to which it may be necessary for such applicant to resort in case of urgent necessity.
When the Council shall have passed an ordinance directing an improvement to be made, to be paid for in whole or in part by special assessments the Mayor shall, as provided by ordinance, either directly by the employment of labor or by entering into a contract therefor, cause the improvement to be made.
When special assessments are levied by the percentage of tax value of the property assessed or by the foot frontage of the property bounding and abutting upon the improvement, and there are lands subject to such assessment which are not assessed for taxation, the Director of Finance and Public Record shall fix, for the purpose of such assessment, the value of such lots as they stand and of such lands at such depths as the Director of Finance and Public Record considers a fair average of the assessed value of other lots in the neighborhood, and where lands are not subdivided into lots but are assessed for taxation, the Director of Finance and Public Record shall fix the value and the depth in the same manner; but the above rule shall not apply in making a special assessment according to benefits.
The Council shall limit all assessments to the special benefits conferred upon the property assessed, and in no case shall there be levied on any lot or parcel of land any assessments for any or all purposes within a period of five years in excess of thirty-three and one-third percent (33- 1/3%) of the actual value thereof after the improvement is made unless the owner or owners of such property shall, in writing waive the said limitation. Assessments levied for the construction of main sewers shall not exceed the sum that, in the opinion of Council, would be required to construct an ordinary street sewer or drain of sufficient capacity to drain or sewer the lots or lands to be assessed for such improvement, nor shall any lots or lands be assessed that do not need local drainage, or which are provided therewith.
The Council may provide in whole or in part the cost of replacing any improvement existing in the street at the time of the adoption of this Charter, by levying special assessments as hereinbefore provided; but any assessment for such replacement in less than twenty (20) years from the date of a prior assessment for the improvement to be replaced shall be limited to a sum not in excess of thirty-three and one-third percent (33-1/3%) of the cost of such replacement.
Every ordinance providing for an improvement to be paid for in whole or in part by special assessments passed subsequent to the adoption of this Charter, shall contain an estimate by the City Engineer of the life of the proposed improvement. Any assessment thereafter made for replacing such improvement within such period of estimated life shall be limited to a sum not in excess of thirty-three and one-third percent (33-1/3%) of the cost of such replacement. Assessments for replacements at or after the expiration of such estimated period of life shall be subject to no limitation except as provided for assessments for original improvements.
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