(1) When water pipe is laid in any street, the owners of the abutting properties shall be assessed for the laying of the pipe. 13
(a) The assessment shall be at a rate of four dollars and fifty cents ($4.50) for each foot of ground fronting on the street. 14
(b) When the Water Commissioner deems it advisable, the water pipe shall be laid inside the curb line, and the owners of ground fronting upon the side of the street in which the pipe is laid shall be assessed five dollars and fifty cents ($5.50) for each foot of ground fronting on the street. 15
(c) No additional assessments shall be made against a property upon which a residence, maintained solely as such, has been erected, having a front on more than one street, where an assessment has been previously made for, or a lawful connection has been made to, water pipe laid along one of the fronts. 16
(.1) Before a connection may be made to a water pipe laid along the remaining front or fronts, the owner thereof shall pay a service charge equal to the assessment charge, established under subsection (d) hereof and subject to the multiple frontage allowance therein provided in effect at the time the water pipe was reconstructed. 17
(.2) Where water pipe is simultaneously laid on more than one front of a property upon which a residence, maintained solely as such, has been erected, an assessment shall be made for one front only. If the frontages are unequal, the assessment shall be made for the shorter or shortest frontage. In the event that the first connection is made to a long front, there shall be charged for each additional connection to any remaining front or fronts a service charge equal to the full assessment charge for that long front in effect at the time the water pipe was constructed, except that the multiple frontage allowance provided in subsection (d) shall be applicable to such service charge. 18
(.3) The foregoing shall only apply to the laying of water pipe completed after the enactment date hereof.
(d) Allowances for all other multiple frontage properties shall be made as follows:
(.1) An allowance shall be made of two-thirds the length of one of the fronts, but the allowance shall not exceed 75 feet on any lot;
(.2) The allowance shall be made on the street having the longer frontage; in case both fronts are equal the allowance shall be made on the side where water pipe is laid last;
(.3) Where a full block has not been subdivided, the frontage of the lot for computing the allowance shall be taken as one-half the length of the block; 19
(.4) Where the lot has not received an allowance on the side where water pipe has been previously laid, an allowance shall be made on the remaining side, but more than one allowance shall not be made on any lot.
(e) No assessment shall be made for water pipe laid in front of places of religious worship, non-profit places of burial, institutions of purely public charity, alleys, driveways, street intersections, or other properties exempt by statute or ordinance. 20
(2) When property has been assessed for the laying of water pipe the property shall not be assessed for subsequent laying of water pipe in the same street. 21
(3) Upon completion of the laying of any water pipe, the Water Department shall:
(a) provide for the prompt computation of the amount of each assessment in accordance with this Section, including all items of regulation and measurement;
(b) assess such amounts against the properties abutting on the street in which the work was done, in the name of the registered owners; and
(c) prepare assessment bills.
(4) The Water Department shall endorse each assessment bill so as to indicate that the work has been completed in accordance with the provisions of the contract. 22
(5) The Redevelopment Authority of the City of Philadelphia shall be required to pay the assessment bill made against any residential property in an urban renewal area where the Redevelopment Authority of the City determines the improvement is a general benefit to the urban renewal area as defined by Title I of the United States Housing Act of 1949, as amended. 23
(6) When the assessment bills are retained for collection by the City, a copy of the assessment bill shall be served by the Water Department upon the registered owner of each property. If the registered owner cannot be found the bill may be left upon the premises. These assessment bills shall contain a notice that if the bill is not paid within 30 days from service, it will be forwarded to the Law Department for lien and collection. 24
Notes
| 13 | Source: 1951 Ordinances, p. 876. |
| 14 | Amended, 1967 Ordinances, p. 402. |
| 15 | Amended, 1960 Ordinances, p. 887. |
| 16 | Amended, 1960 Ordinances, p. 887. |
| 17 | Amended, 1972 Ordinances, p. 455. |
| 18 | Amended, 1972 Ordinances, p. 455. |
| 19 | Amended, 1972 Ordinances, p. 455. |
| 20 | Source: 1899 Ordinances, p. 32; Act of May 16, 1923, P.L. 207, 53 P.S. § 7108. |
| 21 | Amended, 1972 Ordinances, p. 455. |
| 22 | Source: 1923 Ordinances, p. 129. |
| 23 | Added, 1971 Ordinances, p. 599. Enrolled bill erroneously numbered this as subsection (4); renumbered by Code editor. |
| 24 | Source: New; to supplement Act of May 16, 1923, P.L. 207, 53 P.S. § 7142, so as to require the City to give property owners the same notice as is given by private contractors; amended, 1972 Ordinances, p. 455. |