J. MILLARD TAWES, Governor                      597

County (1957 Edition, being Article 14 of the Code of Public
Local Laws of Maryland), title "Howard County", sub-title
"Metropolitan Commission", relating to the Metropolitan Com-
mission in Howard County and requiring public hearings on pro-
posed sub-districts, granting a right of appeal to the County
Commissioners, providing for the approval of the County Com-
missioners to such sub-district, to contracts for water and sewerage
connections, and to purchase of water and sewerage systems.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That Sections 127, 138, 139 and 140 (a) of the Code of Public Local
Laws of Howard County (1957 Edition, being Article 14 of the
Code of Public Local Laws of Maryland), title "Howard County",
sub-title "Metropolitan Commission", be and they are hereby re-
pealed and re-enacted, with amendments, to read as follows:

127.

Whenever [fifteen] thirty (30) property owners residing in any
locality in Howard County (joint owners of a single piece of property
shall be counted as one owner for purposes of this section) shall in
writing petition the Commission to have said locality, the boundaries
whereof shall be definitely stated in said petition, constituted as a
sub-district, then if the Commission, in its discretion, shall deem it
expedient to constitute said locality as a sub-district in accordance
with the prayer of said petition, and if the County Commissioners
consent thereto, the Commission shall cause plats of such locality to
be made under the supervision of its chief engineer, showing the
proposed water, sewerage or drainage systems [,] . Whenever, and
as such plats are completed, the Commission shall give notice by
publication in at least one newspaper published generally within the
county, for each of three consecutive weeks, and by handbills posted
and circulated in the locality which is proposed to be constituted a
sub-district, and shall state in said notice the proposed boundaries of
said sub-district, and shall further state therein that a plat of the
proposed sub-district showing the proposed water, sewerage or
drainage systems may be inspected at the Commission's office and
that any person interested in the creation of such sub-district will
be heard by the Commission at a time specified in said notice but not
less than ten days after the last publication thereof.

If twenty (20) residents and landowners in the proposed sub-
district shall thereupon, and within ten days after the last day of
said publication of said notice, file with the Commission a petition
protesting against the creation of the sub-district, the Commission
shall grant them a hearing within ten days after such petition is
filed in the office of the Commission and not less than five days after
notice of the time and place of said hearing by advertisement pub-
lished in one newspaper published generally within the County, and
by personal notices addressed to any one or more persons whose
names are signed to said petition. After due hearing as aforesaid,
the Commission shall decide upon the reasonableness of the objec-
tions stated in said petition and shall dispose of same by written
order concurred in by a majority of the Commissioners. This order
shall be published in the same manner as notices are herein required
to be published and a copy of said order shall be mailed to at least
one of the petitioners. If the petitioners are not satisfied with the
Commission's decision, they shall have the right to take and enter,