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The City may provide for the payment of all of the City's necessary preliminary expenses actually incurred in the making of surveys, estimates of costs and revenues, the employment of engineers, architects, fiscal agents, attorneys at law, clerical help, other agents or employees, the making of notices, taking of options, and all other expenses necessary or desirable to be made and paid prior to the authorization for or the issuance of the local improvement district bonds. No expenditures shall be made or paid unless an appropriation has been made and budgeted as required by the City Charter. Any funds expended by the City for preliminary expenses incurred in connection with the same purpose as that for which the bonds are issued may be fully reimbursed and repaid to the City out of the proceeds derived from the issuance of the bonds, in which case those expenses shall be included as an incidental cost for assessment purposes. The amount advanced by the City to pay preliminary expenses may be made a first charge against the bond proceeds by the ordinance authorizing the issuance of the bonds. (Ord. 2771; 1968 Code §12-71; Ord. 01-42)
PART 3 LOCAL IMPROVEMENTS; ASSESSMENTS
SECTION:
3.5.301: City Council To Determine Assessments
3.5.302: City Engineer To Prepare Statement; Assessment Roll
3.5.303: Exceptions Applicable To Calculation Of The Assessment Roll
3.5.304: Hearing On Assessment Roll; Notice; Procedure
3.5.305: Council Assessments Final; Exception
3.5.306: Hardship Relief
3.5.307: Assessments A Lien; Exceptions
3.5.308: Council May Make New Assessment
3.5.309: Engineer Shall Extend Assessment Roll
3.5.310: Date Assessments Due; Installments
3.5.311: Payments Made To City
3.5.312: Failure To Pay Installment When Due; Penalties, Reinstatement
3.5.313: Annual, Semiannual Installments; Interest
3.5.314: County Treasurer To Receive Installment Payments
3.5.315: Owner May Pay Share
3.5.316: County Treasurer To Pay Monthly
3.5.317: City May Purchase Tax Sale Property
Whenever any improvement authorized to be made by the City pursuant to this article is so completed or so near completion that the final cost can be computed, the City Council shall determine that all or any part of the total cost, except the share to be assessed against any street or other railway company, shall be assessed against the tracts or parcels of land specially benefited thereby and included within the district, but not including any tract or parcel owned by the United States of America, or any governmental agency, instrumentality or corporation or any streets or public highways. Special assessments shall be in proportion to the special benefits derived to the property and on a front foot, area, zone or other equitable basis, as may be determined by the City Council, sufficient to cover the portion of the total cost of the improvement to be defrayed by special assessments. (1968 Code §12-41; Ord. 76-76; Ord. 01-42)
A. Upon the completion of any local improvement in any district or any subdistrict, and upon district acceptance by the City Council, or whenever the total cost of improvement can be definitely ascertained, the City Engineer shall prepare a statement, showing the total cost of the improvement within the district or subdistrict, including, but not limited to:
1. The cost of constructing or otherwise acquiring the improvement or improvements;
2. Engineering and clerical service and supplies;
3. Costs of inspection;
4. Cost of collecting assessments;
5. Advertising and printing;
6. Interest on bonds until interest on assessments is available to defray same;
7. Fiscal services;
8. Legal services for preparing proceedings and advising;
9. And other incidental costs and surcharges.
B. The City Engineer shall also prepare an assessment roll which shall contain among other things:
1. The names of the last known owners of the property to be assessed, or if not known, that the name is unknown;
2. A description of each tract or parcel of land to be assessed and, in the case of a street or other railway company, a general description of the franchise and property assessed; and
3. The amount of the assessment.
C. The City Engineer shall certify the assessment roll to the City Council by filing the same in the Office of the City Clerk when the roll is prepared. (Ord. 2771; 1968 Code §12-73; Ord. 91-36; Ord. 01-42)
A. Public And Quasi-Public Lands Assessed:
1. Public Lands: When the City, County, school district or any other public or quasi-public corporation shall own any tract of land, or hold the title to any land not used as a street, avenue, boulevard, alley or public highway, which if owned by a private person would be liable to assessment for benefits to pay for any public improvement mentioned in this chapter, an assessment shall be made against the land as though the land were the property of a private person, and the City, County, school district or other public or quasi-public corporation shall pay the amount of the assessment. If the assessment is not paid within thirty (30) days after the final publication of the assessing ordinance, suit may be brought in the District Court to enforce the collection of the assessment and the judgment rendered against the City, County, school district or other public or quasi-public corporations, but no land of the City, County or school district shall be sold under any judgment.
2. Railway Companies: In addition to any other powers exercisable pursuant to this chapter, the Council may include in the area to be improved the portion of any street occupied or repaired by franchise obligation to be paved, or chargeable or assessable to any street, interurban or other railway company whose tracks run through or across any street in the district, and may charge to, assess and collect the proper proportion as determined by the Council, of the cost of the improvement from the street, interurban or other railway company in the same manner as is provided in this chapter in the case of other property specially benefited. The assessment levied for the cost of any improvements chargeable to a railway company shall be a first and prior lien against the entire franchise and property of the company within the district, and also without the district, but within the limits of the City, subject to general taxes. All the terms, conditions and provisions in this chapter contained relative to the collection of the amounts chargeable against tracts or parcels of land assessed shall be applicable in the enforcement and collection of the assessment against the street, interurban or other railway company, and the property of the railway company shall, in case of default in payment of the assessment, be sold as in cases of default in payment of general taxes levied.
B. Intersection Improvements: In case of the improvement of any street, except as otherwise provided in this chapter, the cost of the improvements in any and all street intersections, shall be included in the total cost of the improvements within the district and assessed upon all the lots and tracts in the district on a front foot, area, zone or other equitable basis, as may be determined by the City Council. The City Council may provide that the City may pay for the intersection improvements out of its general revenues, if funds are available. (Ord. 2771; 1968 Code §§12-43, 12-44, 12-45; Ord. 91-36; Ord. 01-42)
A. Hearing Set By City Council: When the assessment roll is certified and filed, the City Council shall fix a time and place when objections or remonstrances by the owners of the real estate to be assessed, street or other railway companies, and all interested persons will be heard.
B. Notice Requirements: The City Clerk shall give notice of the proposed assessments and of the hearing by publication for one day not less than ten (10) days prior to the hearing, in a daily newspaper of general circulation in the City, and by mailing notice, postage prepaid, as first class mail, not less than ten (10) days prior to the hearing, to the last known address of each last known owner of the land within the district whose property will be assessed for the cost of the improvements, the addresses and owners being those appearing on the real property assessment rolls for general (ad valorem) taxes of El Paso County, Colorado. The notice shall state:
1. That the assessment roll is on file in the City Clerk's Office;
2. The date of filing;
3. The time and place when and where the City Council will hear and consider objections and remonstrances to the assessment roll and to the proposed assessments by the aggrieved parties. The owner or owners of any property which is assessed in the assessment roll, any street or other railway company, or other interested persons, whether or not named in the roll, may, at any time after the first publication of the notice and prior to the day of the hearing, file with the City Clerk specific objections in writing. Any objection to the regularity, validity and correctness of the proceedings, of the assessment roll, of each assessment contained, and of the amount levied on each tract and parcel of land, shall be deemed waived unless presented in writing at the time and in the manner specified 1 ; and
4. At the time and place designated for hearing objections, the City Council shall hear and determine all written objections or remonstrances which have been so filed by any party interested as to the regularity of the proceedings in making the assessment, and the correctness of the assessment, or of the amount levied on any particular tract or parcel of land to be assessed. The City Council may consider any other matter concerning the validity of any assessment and may adjourn the hearing from time to time. After the hearing has been concluded, after all written complaints, remonstrances and objections have been read and duly considered, and after all persons desiring to be heard in person have been heard, the Council shall consider the arguments, if any, and any other relevant material put forth. Then, the Council in its discretion, may revise, correct, confirm or set aside any assessment to be corrected, revised or modified or made anew.
C. Exception; Irregular Shaped Lands: When any real estate is "V" shaped or of any irregular form, the City Council may, upon the recommendation of the City Engineer, make the allowance in the assessment as Council may deem equitable or just, so that the assessment shall be in proportion to the special benefits derived, if equity were not present without adjustment.
D. Levy Of Assessments: The Council by ordinance shall, by reference to the assessment roll as modified, levy the assessments in the roll. The ordinance shall be a final determination of the regularity, validity and correctness of the proceedings, of the assessment roll, of each assessment contained, and of the amount levied on each tract and parcel of land. That Council determination shall be conclusive upon the owners of the assessed property. The ordinance also shall state substantially the provisions in subsection E of this section.
E. Action Or Suit: Within the fifteen (15) days immediately succeeding the publication of the ordinance after final passage levying any special assessments, any person who has filed a written objection or objections, or written remonstrance or remonstrances, may commence action or suit in any court of competent jurisdiction to correct or set aside the determination. Thereafter all actions or suits attacking the regularity, validity and correctness of the proceedings, of the assessment roll, of each assessment contained, and of the amount levied on each tract and parcel of land shall be perpetually barred. (Ord. 2771; 1968 Code §§12-46, 12-74; Ord. 91-36; Ord. 01-42)
Notes
| 1 | 1. As to the effect of an owner's failure to receive the notice, see section 3.5.107 of this article. |
A. When made and apportioned and adopted by the City Council, the assessments shall be final, and no assessments shall be apportioned or allocated or divided as to different portions or tracts of the property so assessed but the entire tract so assessed shall be liable for the entire assessment on the tract.
B. Where the original assessment has been made upon a tract or parcel of land that has been subsequently divided among two (2) or more tracts or parcels of land, the City Council may, after hearing and determining that the collection of the assessment will not be prejudiced and the assessment allocation or apportionment is equitable, allocate or apportion the assessment between the two (2) or more tracts or parcels of land, but no separation or allocation shall be made as to any part or portion of one tract or parcel of land appearing on the real property assessment rolls for general (ad valorem) taxes of El Paso County, Colorado, in accord with the hearing provisions of this part. (Ord. 2771; 1968 Code §12-42; Ord. 91-36; Ord. 01-42)
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