J. MILLARD TAWES, Governor                      515

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 Com-
mission to have said locality, the boundaries whereof shall be
definitely stated in said petition, [constituted as a subdistrict,] in-
corporated within the Metropolitan District, then if the Commission,
in its discretion, shall deem it expedient to [constitute] incorporate
said locality as [a subdistrict] an addition to the Metropolitan Dis-
trict 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. When-
ever, 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 subdistrict,} incorporated into the Metropolitan
District, and shall state in said notice the proposed boundaries of
said [subdistrict,] locality to be incorporated into the Metropolitan
District, and shall further state therein that a plat of the proposed
[subdistrict] locality 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 subdistrict]
proposed incorporation of the locality into the Metropolitan District
will be heard by the Commission at a time specified in said notice
but not less and [ten] twenty days after the [last] first publication
thereof.

If twenty (20) residents and landowners in the [proposed sub-
district] locality proposed to be incorporated into the Metropolitan
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 subdistrict] proposed in-
corporation of the locality into the Metropolitan District, the Com-
mission 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 advertise-
ment published 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 objections 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, within ten days after the last publication of said
order, an appeal to the County Commissioners of Howard County,
who shall review the Commission's decision and decide as to the
necessity and propriety of [the creation of the subdistrict] proposed
incorporation of the locality into the Metropolitan District in ques-
tion; and the decision of the County Commissioners shall be final.

Upon approval of said locality by the Howard County Metropolitan
Commission and by the County Commissioners of Howard County
the Metropolitan Commission shall cause final plats of such locality