974                              LAWS OF MARYLAND                     [CH. 698

CHAPTER 699
(Senate Bill 662)

AN ACT to repeal and re-enact, with amendments, Sections 650
(b)(8), 652 (b), 653, 657, 663 and 666 of Article 43 of the Anno-
tated Code of Maryland (1964 Supplement), title "Health", sub-
title "Sanitary Districts"; and to add a new Section 666A to the
said Article of the said Code to follow immediately after Section
666 thereof; to correct certain errors therein and relating gen-
erally to the creation of Sanitary Districts in the State, their
functions and financing, and to grant Commissions the authority
to condemn land for use thereof.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That Sections 650 (b)(8), 652 (b), 653, 657, 663 and 666 of Article
43 of the Annotated Code of Maryland (1964 Supplement), title
"Health", sub-title "Sanitary Districts"; be and they are hereby
repealed and re-enacted, with amendments, and that new Section
666A be and it is hereby added to the said Article of the said Code
to follow immediately after Section 666 thereof, and to read as
follows:

650.

(b)(8) To acquire by gift, purchase or by the exercise of the right
of eminent domain, in the manner prescribed by Article 33A of the
Annotated Code of Maryland (1957 Edition), as from time to time
amended, lands or rights in land or water rights in connection there-
with; provided, however, that no property or any interest or estate
therein owned by any county, city, town or other political subdivision
of the State shall be acquired by the exercise of the power of eminent
domain without the consent of the governing body of such county,
city, town or political subdivision, nor any existing privately owned
and operated water or sewerage system without the consent of the
owners and operators thereof. At any time after ten days after the
return and recordation of the verdict or award in any condemnation
proceedings, the [district] District may enter and take possession
of the property so condemned, upon first paying to the clerk of the
court the amount of said award and all costs taxed to that date,
notwithstanding any appeal or further proceedings upon the part
of the defendant. At the time of said payment, however, the [district]
District shall give its corporate undertaking to abide by and fulfill
any judgment in such appeal or further proceedings.

652.

(b) Whenever twenty-five property owners, residing in any local-
ity in a county, shall in writing petition the [commission] Commis-
sion to have said locality (the boundaries whereof shall be definitely
stated in said petition) constituted as a new sanitary district or
added to an existing sanitary district to which such locality is con-
tiguous, the [commission] Commission, if it approves, shall cause
to be made a preliminary engineering survey, of the project to deter-
mine the feasibility and probable cost of providing such area with
utilities, whether water, sewer or otherwise. If the [commission]
Commission disapproves of the project or is unable or unwilling to
undertake or obtain such preliminary engineering survey, it shall