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Upon the filing of his or her assessment report, the Director of Finance shall cause written notice to be served upon the owner of each lot or parcel of land to be assessed, or otherwise affected, or upon the persons in whose names the same may be assessed for taxation upon the tax duplicate. Said notice shall be served in the manner provided for service of summons in civil action; and as to all non-residents and persons who cannot be found, publication of such notice shall be made at least once in a newspaper of general circulation in the City. The notice shall contain a statement of the character of the proposed improvement, the fact that the assessment report has been filed with the Council, the rate of such assessment, the number of installments, and shall state a time and place when complaints and claims will be heard before the Board of Revision of Assessments.
(Amended by electors 11-7-00)
Whenever the Board of Revision of Assessments shall have made its final report to the Council as to any improvement, the Council, if it determine 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 the 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 assessment upon the respective lots and parcels of land assessed, enforceable in the manner provided by statute.
The Board of Revision of Assessments shall consist of the following officers of the City or their designated representatives: the Director of Finance, the Director of Public Service, and the Director of Law. The Director of Law shall be chairperson of the Board, and the Director of Finance shall be the secretary thereof. It shall meet as necessary at a time and place 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 assessment as provided in the assessment report. A majority of those constituting the Board of Revision of Assessments shall have the power to determine all complaints and objections submitted. As to each improvement, the Board, shall, after such hearing, amend, equalize, and adjust the assessment report, and shall report to the Council its findings as to the necessity for the improvements, and any amendment it directs in the assessments.
(Amended by electors 11-7-00)
An owner of a lot or of land bounding and abutting upon a proposed improvement, claiming that he or she 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 or the completion of the publication herein provided for. 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, and shall be filed with the Director of Finance. 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 damage which will obviously result from the improvement, but shall not deprive the owner of his or her right to recover damages arising, without his or her fault, from the acts of the City or its agents. If subsequent to the filing of such claim, the owner sell the property, or any part thereof, the right of damages, if any, shall follow in the ownership of the land without transference of the claim. The Board of Revision of Assessments shall report to the Council all such claims for damages filed with it.
(Amended by electors 11-7-00)
At or before the time of the passage of the ordinance directing that the improvement shall proceed, 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 decide that the damages shall be assessed before commencing the improvement, the City Attorney shall then make such application and such proceedings shall be had thereon as are provided by statute relating to the assessment of damages on such claims.
If the Council determines to assess the damages after the completion of the improvement for which a claim for damages has been filed, the City Attorney shall within ten days after the completion of the improvement make written application and the same proceedings shall be had as provided in the next preceding section.
No person who claim damages arising from any cause shall commence a suit therefor against the City until sixty days after he or she shall have filed a claim for such damages with the Director of Finance. This provision shall not apply to an application for an injunction, or other proceeding to which it may be necessary to resort in case of urgent necessity.
(Amended by electors 11-7-00)
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 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 considers a fair average of the depths of lots in the neighborhood, so that it will be a fair average of the assessed value of other lots in the neighborhood. Where lands are not subdivided into lots, but are assessed for taxation, the Director of Finance 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.
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