CHAPTER 300

An Act to amend and reenact §§ 1, 2a, 3, 3a, 11 and 12a of Chapter 161 of
the Acts of Assembly of 1926, approved March 17, 1926, as amended,
which was continued in effect by § 21-120 of the Code of Virginia,
relating to sanitary districts in certain counties. P

[S 208]

Approved March 11, 1952

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 1, 2a, 3, 3a, 11 and 12a of Chapter 161 of the Acts of Assembly
of 1926, approved March 17, 1926, as amended, which was continued in
effect by § 21-120 of the Code of Virginia, be amended and reenacted as
follows:

§ 1. The circuit court of any county in this State having a density
of population of more than five hundred inhabitants per square mile,
according to the last preceding United States census, or of any county
adjoining any county in this State having a population of more than one
thousand inhabitants per square mile, or of any county adjoining a city
having a population according to the last preceding United States census,
of one hundred seventy thousand inhabitants, or more, or the judge of
such court in vacation, upon the petition of fifty qualified voters of the
proposed district, or if the proposed district contains less than one hundred
qualified voters, upon the petition of fifty per centum of the qualified
voters thereof, may make an order creating a sanitary district or districts
in and for such county, which order shall prescribe the metes and bounds
of the district.

On and after the effective date of the amendments to Chapter one
hundred sixty-one of the Acts of Assembly of nineteen hundred twenty-
six made by the General Assembly of nineteen hundred * fifty-two, all
the provisions of such chapter, as amended, shall be fully applicable to
any and all sanitary districts heretofore created in any county included
within the provisions of such chapter *, and the provisions of the * statute
under which any such district was created shall no longer apply.

2a. The circuit court, or the judge of such court in vacation, upon
the petition of the board of supervisors or other governing body of the
county * or of twenty-five per centum of the qualified voters residing
within the limits of the territory proposed to be added or severed, may
make an order altering the boundaries of and enlarging or reducing any
sanitary district created under the provisions of this act, which order
shall prescribe the metes and bounds of the territory to be added or
severed; provided, however, that no order reducing a sanitary district and
severing any territory therefrom shall be made if any bonds of the sani-
tary district have theretofore been issued and have not been redeemed
in full as of the date of the petition requesting such reduction of the
sanitary district, or if any system or systems have been established and
are in operation under the provisions of Section three of this act, as
amended, in the territory proposed to be severed as of the date of the
petition requesting such reduction of the sanitary district.

Upon the filing of said petition a hearing shall be had as provided in
section two of this act, as amended, and the notice of such hearing may
require all interested persons to appear and show cause why any special
tax levied or to be levied in the sanitary district for special sanitary dis-
trict purposes may not likewise be levied and collected, or discontinued
after the end of the current taxable year, in the territory proposed to he
added to or severed from such district, and to appear and show cause
why the net operating revenue derived or to be derived in the added terri-
tory from the operation of any system or systems established or to be
established under the provisions of section three of this act, as amended,
may not be set apart to pay the interest on and retire at maturity the
principal of any bonds theretofore issued in connection with such system
or systems. Nothing in such order enlarging a sanitary district as pro-
vided herein shall be construed to limit or adversely affect the rights and
interests of any holder of bonds issued by said district, and such order
shall expressly preserve and protect such rights and interests.

§ 3. After the entry of such order creating a sanitary district of
such county, the board of supervisors thereof shall have the following
powers and duties, subject to the conditions and limitations hereinafter
prescribed :

(a) To construct, reconstruct, maintain, alter, improve, add to and
to operate motor vehicle parking lots, water supply, drainage, sewerage,
garbage disposal, heat, light, power, gas, sidewalks and fire fighting
systems, for the use and benefit of the public in such sanitary district and
as to such motor vehicle parking lots system to make such charges for the
use of such facilities as may be prescribed by the board.

(a-1) To acquire, maintain and operate, within such sanitary dis-
trict, such community buildings and other recreational facilities as the
board may deem expedient or advisable, and to make such charges for
the use of such facilities as may be prescribed by the board.
(b) To acquire by gift, condemnation, purchase, lease or otherwise,
and to maintain and operate any such motor vehicle parking lots, water
supply, drainage, sewerage, garbage disposal, heat, light and power and
gas and sidewalks and fire fighting systems in such district.

(c) To contract with any person, firm, corporation, municipality or
the Federal government or any agency thereof to acquire, construct, re-
construct, maintain, alter, improve, add to and operate any such motor
vehicle parking lots, water supply, drainage, sewerage, garbage removal
and disposal, heat, light, power, gas, sidewalk and fire fighting systems
in such district, and to accept the funds of, or to reimburse from any
available source, such person, firm, corporation, municipality or the
Federal government or any agency thereof for either the whole or any
part of the costs, expenses and charges incident to the acquisition, con-
struction, reconstruction, maintenance, alteration, improvement, addition
to and operation of any such system or systems.

(d) To require owners or tenants of any property in the district
to connect with any such system or systems, and to contract with the
owners or tenants for such connections. In order to require owners or
tenants of any property in the district to connect with any such system
or systems, the board of supervisors shall have power and authority to
adopt ordinances so requiring owners or tenants to connect with such
systems, and to use the same, and the board of supervisors shall have power
to provide for a punishment in the ordinance of not exceeding a fifty
dollar fine for each failure and refusal to so connect with such systems,
or to use the same. Before adopting any such ordinance the board of
supervisors shall give public notice of the intention to propose the same
for passage by posting hand bill notices of such proposal in three or
more public places in the sanitary district at least ten days prior to the
time the ordinance shall be proposed for passage. The ordinance shall
not become effective after its passage until ten days like notice has been
given by posting copies of such ordinance in three or more public places
in the district. Violations of such ordinances shall be tried before the
trial justice court of the county as is provided for trial of misdemeanors,
and with like right of appeal.

(e) To fix and prescribe the rates of charge for the use of any such
system or systems and to provide for the collection of such charges. And
to enable the board to enforce the collection of charges for the use of
any such system against the person or persons, firm or corporation using
the same, the charges when made for the use of any such system shall be
collectible by distress, levy, garnishment, attachment or otherwise without
recourse to court procedure, except so far as the selected procedure may
require the same. And the board shall have power to designate as its
agent for the purpose of collection such officer or officers, person or
persons as it may determine, and the officer or officers, person or persons
shall be vested with the same power and authority as a sheriff or con-
stable may have in like procedure.

Any unpaid charge shall become a lien superior to the interest of
any owner, lessee or tenant, and next in succession to county taxes, on the
real property on which the use of any such system was made and for
which the charge was imposed; provided, however, such lien shall not
bind or affect a subsequent bona fide purchaser of such real estate for
valuable consideration without actual notice of such lien, except and until
from the time that the amount of such charge is entered in the Judgment
Lien Docket kept in the office where deeds may be recorded in the political
subdivision wherein the real estate or a part thereof is located. It shall
be the duty of the clerk in whose office deeds may be recorded to keep and
preserve and hold available for public inspection such Judgment Lien
Docket and to cause entries to be made and indexed therein from time to
time upon certification by the board for which he shall be entitled to a
fee of fifty cents per entry to be paid by the board and added to the amount
of the lien.

Such lien on any real estate may be discharged by the payment to
the board of the total amount of such lien, and interest at the rate of six
per centum per annum from the date of such charge was due and payable
which may accrue to the date of such payment, and the entry fee of fifty
cents, and it shall be the duty of the board to deliver a certificate thereof
to the person paying the same, and upon presentation thereof and the
payment of the further fee of twenty-five cents by such person, the
clerk having the record of such lien shall mark the entry of such lien
satisfied.

Jurisdiction to enforce any such lien shall be in equity, and the court
may decree the real estate subject to the lien, or any part thereof, to be
sold and the proceeds applied to the payment of such lien and the interest
which may accrue to the date of such payment.

Nothing containing herein shall be construed to prejudice the right
of the board to recover the amount of such lien, or of the charge, and the
interest which may accrue, by action at law or otherwise.

In providing for the collection of charges the board may direct that
such charges be included on the annual tax bill for the real property to
which service 1s rendered, and when so included such charges shall be sub-
ject to the same provisions for collection as apply in the case of the
collection of real property taxes. The board, in its discretion, shall
establish the procedures and methods of assessment of such charges,
determine the amount of such charges and the period or periods for which
such charges shall be applicable, and shall otherwise arrange for the
anclusion of such charges on the annual tax bill.

(f) To employ and fix the compensation of any technical, clerical,
or other force and help which from time to time, in their judgment, may
be deemed necessary for the construction, operation or maintenance of
any such system or systems.

(g) To negotiate and contract with any person, firm, corporation,
or municipality with regard to the connection of any system or systems
with any other system or systems now in operation or hereafter to be
established, and with regard to any other matter necessary and proper
for the construction or operation and maintenance of any such system
within the sanitary district.

(h) To contract for the extension of any such system into territory
outside of the district, and for the use thereof, upon such terms and con-
ditions as the board may from time to time determine upon.

(i) With respect to the maintenance and operation of said motor
vehicle parking lots system, the board is authorized to purchase, install,
maintain and operate, and to fix and charge parking meter fees for the
use of, such parking lot or lots.

§ 8a. In addition to the powers and duties conferred and imposed
upon the board of supervisors by § 3, such board shall have the following
powers and duties, subject to the conditions and limitations hereinafter
prescribed: ,

(a) To employ and fix the compensation of counsel for such legal
advice or services as the board deems necessary;

(b) To levy and collect an annual tax upon all the property in such
sanitary district subject to local taxation to pay, either in whole or
in part, the costs, expenses and charges incident to acquiring, construct-
ing, reconstructing, maintaining, altering, improving, adding to, and oper-
ating water supply, drainage, sewerage, garbarge removal and disposal,
heat, lights, fire-fighting equipment and power and gas systems and side-
walks, and incident to the acquisition and maintenance of such community
buildings and recreational facilities, for the use and benefit of the public
in such sanitary district; |

(c) To exercise the same power and authority for the abatement of
nuisances in such sanitary district as is vested by law in councils of cities
and towns for the abatement of nuisances therein and it shall be the
duty of the board to exercise such power when any such nuisance shall be
shown to exist.

§ 11. The net revenue derived from the operation of such systems
shall be set apart by. the board to pay the interest on the bonds so issued
or to be issued, and to create a sinking fund to redeem the principal
thereof at maturity. The board of supervisors is hereby authorized and
empowered to apply any part or all of such sinking fund to the payment,
if redeemable by their terms, or to the purchase of any such bonds, at
any time, and all bonds so paid off or purchased by the board of super-
visors shall be immediately cancelled, and shall not be reissued. The
board of supervisors is authorized and empowered to invest all accumula-
tions of money to the credit of the sinking fund in bonds of the United
States, of the State of Virginia, or of any county, city or town of the
State of Virginia, or to lend out, upon real estate security, the loan not
to exceed fifty per centum of the assessed value of such real estate, or
deposit in bank at interest, all accumulations of money to the credit of the
sinking fund and to collect and reinvest the same and the interest accruing
thereon from time to time, so often as is necessary or expedient, until
the bonds become subject to call; provided that no money to the credit
of the sinking fund shall be loaned out or deposited or invested by the
board of supervisors unless such loan, deposit or investment is first
approved by the circuit court of the county, or the judge in vacation, and
the form of the security be examined and approved by the Common-
wealth’s attorney of the county, which approval shall be entered of record
in the order book of the court.

The treasurer shall not be liable for any funds herein provided for
that are lost while on deposit made by order of the board of supervisors
with any bank or banks, or when invested in any real estate security as
provided herein, but the board of supervisors may require of any such
bank a bond, with corporate or other surety, to secure such deposit.

The board of supervisors shall, if necessary for the payment of
interest on the bonds or to increase the sinking fund provided for here-
under, levy an annual tax upon all * property in such sanitary district
subject to local taxation to pay such interest and to make payments into
such sinking fund.

§ 12a. In any county in which a sanitary district has been created,
or is hereafter created under this act, the governing body of such county
may, if it deems it necessary, form any thickly populated area or any
traffic congested business area or areas within such sanitary district into
a smaller district, hereinafter referred to as “small district’, and furnish
to the same public utilities as provided in section three hereof, and allocate
to such ‘“‘small district” such sum or sums of money from the sanitary
district bond issue, or issues, as are, in their judgment, necessary for
the construction of public utilities within the “small district” so formed.

All of the property subject to local taxation within the “small
district” shall be primarily obligated for the payment of the interest and
principal on that part of the bonded indebtedness of the sanitary district
as is equal to that part of the proceeds therefrom which have been
allocated for use within the “small district”, and the governing body of
the county shall, in the event that the net revenue from the operation of
the public utilities is not sufficient to pay the interest and to create a sink-
ing fund to liquidate the amount so allocated, levy an annual tax on all
of the property, subject to local taxation in the “small district”, to pay
such interest and to make payments into the sinking fund. But nothing
in this act shall be construed to exempt the sanitary district, and the
property subject to local taxation therein, from its obligation under and
by reason of such sanitary district bond issue or issues. Provided that
in any county having an area of more than forty-five and less than sixty
Square miles, such small districts may be created within a sanitary dis-
trict in the same manner that sanitary districts are created under the
foregoing provisions of this section, and when so created shall have all
the powers and be subject to all the obligations herein conferred and im-
posed upon sanitary districts.

In lieu of allocating such sum or sums from the sanitary district
bond issue or issues, as hereinbefore provided, the governing body, in
order to raise the necessary funds to furnish public utilities to such ‘“‘small
districts’, shall have the power, subject to the conditions and limitations
of sections four to twelve, both inclusive, of this act, to issue bonds of
the “small district” to an amount in the aggregate of not exceeding
eighteen per centum of the assessed value of all real estate in the “small
district” subject to local taxation and it is further declared that when-
ever this paragraph is utilized the words “small district”? and “district”
appearing in sections four to twelve, both inclusive, of this act, shall be
construed to mean “small district” as referred to in this paragraph.

After the formation of such “small district” the governing body shall
have the same power and duties in such “small district” as are conferred
and imposed upon it after the formation of a sanitary district.

2. An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.