Chapter 1417. Authorizing the laying of water mains and service sewers in the District of Columbia, the levying of assessments therefor, and for other purposes
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CHAP. 1417.— An Act Authorizing the laying of water mains and service sewers in the District of Columbia, the levying of assessments therefor, and for other purposes. April 22, 1904. [[S. 2878](/us/bill/58/s/2878).] [[Public, No. 140](/us/pl/58/140).] *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, District of Columbia. Assessments for water mains, etc. *Post*, p. 1043. That the Commissioners of the District of Columbia be, and they are hereby, authorized and directed, whenever in their judgment the same may be necessary for the public safety, health, comfort, or convenience, to construct water mains and service sewers in any street, avenue, road, or alley in the District of Columbia; and the assessor of said District shall levy assessments for the same against abutting property in the amount and manner hereinafter prescribed.
Sec. 2. Water mains. Rates of assessment. That for laying or constructing water mains in the District of Columbia assessments shall be levied at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per linear front foot against all lots or land abutting upon that part of the street, avenue, road, or alley in which a water Sewers. main shall be laid, and that for laying or constructing service sewers Rates of assessment in the District of Columbia assessments shall be levied at the rate of one dollar per linear front foot against all lots or land abutting upon that part of the street, avenue, road, or alley in which a sewer shall *Provisos*.
Inside lots. be laid: *Provided*, That assessments for water mains and service sewers in the case of lots or parcels of land not more than one hundred feet in depth shall be levied upon the fronts or rears of such lots or parcels of land, and not upon both the fronts and rears of such lots or parcels of land; but lots or parcels of land more than one hundred feet in depth, except corner lots, shall be assessed upon both their fronts and rears when water mains or service sewers are laid abutting Corner lots. the same: *Provided*, That corner lots shall be assessed for water mains and service sewers only on their short fronts with a depth of not exceeding one hundred feet; any excess of the other front over one hundred feet shall be subject to assessment, as hereinbefore provided:
Previous assessments. *Provided*, That the areas of all lots or parcels of land which have been assessed for water mains by the square foot under any previous 245 Act of Congress, or of the late legislative assembly of the District of Columbia, shall not be again assessed for water mains: *Provided*, That Allowance for paid assessments. assessments for water mains or service sewers shall not be levied under this Act against lots or parcels of land not more than one hundred feet in depth which have theretofore been assessed by the linear front feet by authority of any Act of Congress or of the late corporation of Georgetown, and in any assessment or reassessment levied under the provisions of this Act credit shall be allowed for any amount which may have been heretofore paid upon any water main or service sewer assessment levied against the same portion of the area of any lot or parcel of land: *Provided further*, That when the Commissioners of Abutting property only to be assessed. the District of Columbia shall deem it advantageous to lay water mains or service sewers on each side of any street, avenue, road, or alley assessments shall be levied at the rate, within the time and in the manner in this section provided for, against the lots abutting the side of the street, avenue, road, or alley in which the water main or service sewer is laid.
Sec. 3. That the assessor of the District of Columbia shall give Notice of levy. notices as herein provided of the levying of assessments for water mains and service sewers. Assessments shall be levied within sixty days after the completion of the main or service sewer, and the owner or owners affected by such assessments shall be notified that the same have been levied by a notice which shall be served upon the owner of the lot or parcel of land if he or she be a resident of the District of Columbia, and his or her residence be known.
If the owner be a nonresident or his or her residence be unknown, the notice shall be served on his or her agent or tenant. The service of such notice, Service of notice. Personal. where the owner or his or her agent or tenant resides in the District of Columbia, shall be personal or by leaving the same with some person of suitable age, either a member of his family or in his employ, at the residence or place of business of such owner, agent, or tenant; and return of such service, stating the manner thereof, shall be made in writing under oath and filed in the office of the assessor of the District of Columbia.
If there be no agent or tenant known to said Advertisement. assessor, and the owner or owners be not residents of the District of Columbia, or if the owner be a resident of the District of Columbia and can not be found therein, and no person of suitable age as aforesaid can be found at his or her residence or place of business, notice shall be given by advertisement once a week for three successive weeks in some daily newspaper published in said District, and in said publication of said notice each several piece of property shall be described in a separate paragraph, and the cost of such advertisement shall be added to the amount of said assessment and collected in the same manner that said assessment is collected.
Sec. 4. That assessments for water mains and service sewers shall Payment of assessments. be payable in three equal installments, the first of which shall be due and payable without interest within thirty days from date of service of notice or of the last publication of notice as the case may be, the second within one year, and the third within two years from the date of assessment, and interest at the rate of six per centum per annum shall be charged on all amounts which shall remain unpaid at the expiration of thirty days from the date of service of notice or last publication as the case may be; but the owner of the property assessed may, at his option, at any time after the levying of such assessment, pay the same in full; and the discount heretofore allowed for payment of assessments for water mains within thirty days from date of service of notice of assessments shall not be allowed hereafter: *Provided*, *Proviso*.
Delinquents. That if any installment of any assessment for water main or service sewer levied under the provisions of this Act shall not be paid when due and payable the property against which said assessment was 246 levied may be sold for said delinquent installment at the next ensuing annual tax sale in the same manner and under the same conditions as property sold for delinquent general taxes, if said installment shall not have been paid prior to said sale. Sec. 5. County land not subdivided nonassessable. *Provisos*.
Exceptions. That property in the county of Washington, not subdivided into blocks or lots, or both, shall not be assessed for water mains or service sewers until subdivided: *Provided*, That where houses are built on any unsubdivided land and connection is made with a water main or service sewer, assessment shall be made as herein provided for in the case of subdivided property by assessing a frontage of fifty feet on each side of said connection with a depth of one hundred feet, except that no double assessment shall be levied; said assessment to be levied within sixty days after said connection is made; and if such unsubdivided land is thereafter subdivided into blocks or lots, such lots shall be assessed as herein provided as to subdivided lands, but the fifty feet on each side of said connection, with a depth of one hundred feet, All subdivisions assessable. shall not be again assessed: *Provided further*, That hereafter assessments at the rate and in the manner herein provided for shall be levied against each lot or parcel of land abutting any water main or service sewer in all subdivisions of land, within sixty days after the recording of such subdivision in the office of the surveyor of the District of Exceptions.
Columbia, except in cases where said lots or parcels of land have been previously assessed for the same main or service sewer. Sec. 6. Unlevied assessments. That in all cases where water mains have heretofore been laid and assessments therefor against abutting lots or land not levied pending the introduction of water into such lots or land, under the Vol. 30, p. 721. provisions of an Act of Congress approved July eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, such assessments shall be levied under the provisions of this Act.
Sec. 7. Reassessment. That the assessor of the District of Columbia is hereby authorized and directed in cases where water-main assessments, or assessments for service sewers, may be quashed, canceled, set aside, or declared void by the supreme court of the District of Columbia, or may otherwise be canceled or set aside, by reason of an imperfect or erroneous description of the lot or parcel of ground against which the same shall have been levied, by reason of such tax or assessment not having been authenticated by the proper officer or by reason of a defective return of service of notice, or for any technical reason other than the right of the authorities of the District of Columbia, to levy assessment or lay the main or service sewer in respect of which assessment was levied, to relevy such assessment at the rate and in the manner provided *Proviso*.
Time limit. for in this Act: *Provided*, That such reassessment shall be made within sixty days from date of such cancellation. Sec. 8. Disposal of sewer funds. That all sums received by the collector of taxes under the provisions of this Act on account of assessments levied for the construction of service sewers shall be credited to the appropriation under which the sewer was constructed for the fiscal year in which such sums shall be received. Sec. 9. Service sewers. That a service sewer within the meaning of the provisions of this Act shall be a sewer with which connection may be directly made for the purpose of providing sewerage facilities to abutting property, and such sewers shall be so indicated on the records of the sewer division of the engineer department of the District of Columbia.
Sec. 10. Repeal. That all Acts and parts of Acts inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed. Approved, April 22, 1904.