1656                              LAWS OF MARYLAND                        [CH. 754

water main, sewer, or drain has been built. The annual assessment
shall be made upon the front foot basis, and the first payment shall
be collected during the year in which the construction is completed
on the water supply, sewerage, or drainage systems; or in which the
systems are purchased or acquired. All sums collected by the Com-
mission for benefits levied against the property for water, sewerage,
or drainage construction shall be set aside as a separate fund to be
known and designated as the Front Foot Benefit Assessment Fund.

(b)    The Commission for the purpose of assessing benefits shall
divide all properties binding upon a street, road, lane, alley, or
right-of-way, in which a water pipe or sanitary sewer is to be laid,
into four classes, namely: agricultural, small acreage, industrial or
business, and residential, and the Commission may subdivide each
of these classes in such manner as it deems to be in the public in-
terest. Whenever any water supply or sewerage project in the county
has been completed and declared ready for service, the Commission
shall fix and levy an assessment for the remainder of the fiscal year
on a pro rata basis upon all property in the county abutting upon the
water main or sewer, in accordance with the classification or subdivi-
sion thereof; and it shall in writing notify all owners of said proper-
ties into which class and subdivision their respective properties fall
and the charge determined upon, naming also in the notice a time
and place, when and at which time the owner will be heard. Such
notice may be mailed to the last known address of the owner, or
served in person upon any adult occupying the premises or in case of
a vacant or unimproved property posted upon the premises.

(c)    The classification of and the benefit assessment made against
any property by the Commission is final, subject only to revision at
the hearing. The Commission may change the classification of prop-
erties from time to time as the properties change in the uses to which
they are put. The benefit assessment shall be levied for water sup-
ply, sewerage and drainage construction, and shall be based for each
class of property upon the number of front feet abutting upon the
street, lane, road, alley, or right-of-way in which the water pipe or
sewer is placed; provided, however, that in the case of any irregular
shaped lot abutting upon a road, street, lane, alley, or right-of-way
in which there is or is being constructed a water main, sewer or
drainage system at any point, the lot shall be assessed for such
frontage as the Commission may determine to be reasonable and
fair; and provided further that no residential property may be as-
sessed on more than one side unless it abuts upon two parallel streets,
that corner lots may be averaged and assessed upon such frontage
as the Commission may deem reasonable and fair, and that all lots
in the residential and industrial or business classification shall be
assessed even though a water main or sewer may not extend along
the full length of any boundary: and provided further, that no land
classified as agricultural by the Commission shall be assessed a front
foot benefit when it has constructed through it or in front of it a
sewer or water main until such time as the water or sewer connec-
tion is made, and when so made and for every connection such land
is liable to a front foot assessment for such reasonable frontage not
exceeding three hundred (300) feet, or as may be determined by the
Commission, and shall be immediately assessed at the rate of as-
sessment determined by the Commission for agricultural land. Any
land owned by a religious body upon which there is erected a church
or a parsonage and which is used exclusively for customary religious