Chap. 201.—An ACT to vest in the board of supervisors and other governing
bodies of counties having a population greater than 750 inhabitants per square
mile, as shown by the last preceding United States census, additional powers
and duties as to constructing, reconstructing, extending, altering, maintaining
and repairing sewer systems and parts thereof; to authorize the said boards
of supervisors and other governing bodies to levy certain taxes and assess-
ments, and to provide for certain exemptions therefrom, for the construction,
reconstruction, extension, alteration, maintenance and repair of sewer systems
and parts thereof, to provide for the recordation and collection of the same
and the handling and disposition of revenues derived therefrom; and for such
purposes to vest in the said boards of supervisors and other governing bodies
certain powers of eminent domain. [fH B 294]

Approved March 27, 1934

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, as follows:

1. In addition to such authority as is delegated to the boards of
supervisors or other governing bodies of certain counties within this
State by the provisions of sections thirty hundred and sixty-seven to
thirty hundred and seventy-one, both inclusive, of the Code of Virginia,
as amended, the board of supervisors or other governing body of any
county within the Commonwealth of Virginia having a population
greater than seven hundred and fifty inhabitants per square mile, as

shown by the last preceding United States census, shall have the follow-
ing power with respect to the assessment of abutting property owners
for the construction of sewers; the board of supervisors or other gov-
erning body of any such county may, by appropriate resolution, de-
termine to construct a system of sewer main and lateral lines in and
through the said county, which system shall constitute a single project.
By such resolution, the said board or other governing body shall fix
upon an amount which shall be determined and declared therein to be
not in excess of the peculiar benefits accruing to the abutting property ;
and which shall be uniformly assessed against each front foot of prop-
erty abutting on lines within the said project, or abutting on streets or
rights of way in which the said lines are located. No notice shall be
required to be given of the adoption of such resolution. The said gov-
erning body may, from time to time, as in its determination, the public
interest may require, upon further similar resolution, extend the said
system by the construction or reconstruction of additional sewer lines,
in which case the lines determined in such resolution to be constructed
or reconstructed shall constitute a further single project and abutting
property thereon shall be subject to a uniform front foot assessment,
to be levied and collected in the manner herein specified.

2. The said governing body of such county shall have the further
power to exempt from such assessment, land which may be owned by
the State or any political sub-division thereof, or which may not derive
the required peculiar benefit from the construction of the sewer line on
which such land abuts; or it may defer the assessment of such land
until it shall appear to said board that the land in question has become
so peculiarly benefitted.

3. Whenever the amount proposed to be assessed against each
landowner has been ascertained, all further proceedings as to notice
of hearing or appeal shall be as determined by sections thirty hundred
and sixty-six to thirty hundred and seventy-one, both inclusive, of the
Code, excepting as hereinafter set forth.

4. When such assessment has finally been established, the amount
thereof, a brief description of the property assessed, and the name of
the owner of record thereof, shall be certified by the said governing
body to the treasurer of the said county, who shall collect the same
and be accountable therefor, as in the case of other county taxes. Upon
default in the payment of such amount, or any installment thereof, the
land shall not be sold as in the case of general land taxes which have
become delinquent, but in lieu thereof the treasurer may institute, in
his own name, appropriate chancery proceedings to enforce the pay-
ment thereof. From the date that said assessment has been certified
to the said treasurer, such amount shall be a lien upon the property
thereby affected, which lien shall have priority over all other liens
except that of county taxes regularly assessed. The said treasurer shall
maintain in his office, a firmly bound book, or books, wherein he shall
cause to be recorded, immediately upon receipt of the certificate thereof,
the name of the owner of each parcel of land against which such an

assessment has been levied, a brief description of the land affected
thereby, and the amount of the assessment thereon. He shall, likewise,
record in that book any payment of, or on account of, the said assess-
ment, immediately upon receipt thereof; and upon the written request
of any person, which request shall designate the parcel of land and the
name of the owner thereof, the said treasurer shall issue his certificate
showing the amount of principal and interest then unpaid on the as-
sessment against such parcel of land.

5. The board of supervisors or other governing body of any such
county, 1s hereby vested with the power of eminent domain insofar as
may be necessary for the construction, reconstruction, alteration, main-
tenance and repair of any part of such a sewerage system, and in the
exercise of such power is hereby vested with all of the authority to
exercise such power as is given to the State Highway Commissioner of
Virginia by chapter four hundred and three of the Acts of Assembly of
Virginia, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, as amended, except that
the enhancement, if any, in value of the remaining property of the
landowner by reason of the construction of any sewer line contemplated
or made by such board shall not be shown as an offset against the
damage, if any, resulting to such remaining property of such land-
owner by reason of such construction; nor shall the taking of any such
property under the provisions of such section preclude the said board
from assessing the land abutting on such sewer line, in the same manner
and to the same extent, that other property may be assessed under the
provisions of this act.

6. If any part or parts, section, sub-section, sentence, clause or
phrase of this act is for any reason declared unconstitutional, such de-
cision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this act,
which shall remain in force as if such act had been passed with the
unconstitutional part or parts, section, sub-section, sentence, clause or
phrase thereof eliminated; and the General Assembly hereby declares
that it would have passed this act if such unconstitutional part or parts,
section, sub-section, sentence, clause or phrase had not been included
herein.

7. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its passage.