2752                               Municipal Charters

actual cost derived from such charge, shall be retained by the Department
of Public Works as a fund for repairs, replacements or any expenses in
the maintenance and operation of water supply and sewer systems.

20.309—Assessment on Properties, Benefits, Classifications

(a)    For the purpose of paying the interest and principal of the bonds
heretofore issued by the former Metropolitan Commission and by FOR
bonds hereafter issued to provide for water supply, and sewerage systems
to be constructed, purchased, or established within the Metropolitan Dis-
trict of Howard County, the Director of Public Works FINANCE is
hereby empowered to establish and affix an annual assessment on all
properties, improved or unimproved, binding upon a street, road, lane, alley
or right-of-way in which a water main or sewer main has been built. The
said annual assessment shall be made upon the front foot basis and the
intensity of use of development of the property abutting the said water
main or sewer main. The first payment shall be collected during the year
in which the construction is completed SERVICE IS PROVIDED on the
water supply, or sewerage system, or in which the systems are purchased
or acquired.

(b)    The said Director of Public Works FINANCE 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 main or sanitary sewer is
to be laid, into nine classes, namely: agricultural, small acreage, industrial
or business, sub-division or residential property, apartment, motel or hotel,
office and shopping center and trailer parks, and the Director of Public
Works FINANCE shall sub-divide each of said classes in such manner
as he may deem to be in the public interest, basing such classifications
upon the intensity of use or development of property within the larger
class. As used herein, the word "class" or "classes" shall include the class
or classes established by the Director of Public Works FINANCE here-
under.

(c)    Whenever any water supply or sewerage project OR PORTION
THEREOF in said Metropolitan District shall have been completed IN
OPERATION by June 30 or December 31, in any one year, regardless
of when said construction was commenced, then the Director of Public
Works FINANCE shall fix and levy a benefit charge as of the first day
of July or January upon all property in said Metropolitan District abutting
upon said water main or sewer main, in accordance with the classification
or subdivision thereof, and shall in writing, notify all owners of said prop-
erties into which class and subdivision their respective properties fall and
the charge determined upon naming also, in said notice a time and place,
when and at which time said owner will be heard. Such notice shall be
mailed to the last known address of the owner, or served in person upon
any adult occupying the premises or in the case of a vacant or unimproved
property posted upon the premises. The classification of and the benefit
assessed against any property, upon protest by the owner, shall be re-
viewed at a Public Hearing to be held by the Public Works Board and
the said Board shall have the power to change or adjust the said assessment
where an error as to any factual matter has been made in the original
assessment. If the property owner is aggrieved with the decision of the
Public Works Board, then an Appeal may be entered to the Board of
Appeals as provided by law, and upon such appeal, the Board of Appeals
shall review the case upon the record made before the Public Works Board,
and the burden of proof shall be upon the Appellant to show that the
decision was arbitrary, or unsupported by any substantial evidence, or
was unreasonable, or that such decision was illegal.