3102

LAWS OF MARYLAND

Ch. 805

farming or trucking purposes, shall be assessed a front foot
benefit when such agricultural land has constructed through
it or in front of it a sewer or water main, until such time
as a water or sewer connection is made, and when so made and
for every connection such land shall become liable to a
front foot assessment for* such reasonable frontage, hot
exceeding three hundred foot front, as may be determined by
[said] THE commission, and shall be immediately assessed at
the rate of assessment determined upon by [said] THE
commission for agricultural land. State, county and
municipal buildings or property or public parks or
playgrounds owned by a municipality, and any property or
building owned by a regularly organized volunteer fire
department, while so used for such public purposes, shall be
exempt from the imposition of a front foot benefit charge.
The commission may further provide for a hiatus in the
imposition and collection of a front foot benefit assessment
for any property otherwise assessable with respect to a
sanitary sewer line which property cannot in the judgment of
the commission obtain service from the sewer pipe upon which
the benefit would be based. The commission may provide for
a hiatus in the imposition and the collection of a front
foot benefit charge for water main construction when the
owner of the property otherwise subject thereto under the
provisions of this section is not permitted to connect to
the water main by the commission on account of the absence
of a sanitary sewer or finding by the county health
department that a septic system would not be approved for
the disposal of the water for which the connection is
requested, and the extension of an improved sewage system is
not reasonably feasible. The suspension of the benefit
charge shall terminate at any time a connection with the
commission's sewer pipe or water main, as the case may be,
is made by the owner of the property, whereupon the property
shall be classified and the benefit charge shall commence
and be collected as hereinafter provided with respect to
land or property for which benefit charges had initially
been exempted or suspended and such exemption or suspension
is no longer applicable. If property in the sanitary
district is at the time of construction of a commission
water line or sanitary sewer line connected to a public
water system or public sewer system operated either by a
municipality or by a water or sewer company subject to the
requirements of the Maryland State Department of Health, or
if following construction of the commission line such
property is connected to such other specified public system
pursuant to commission authorization, such property shall be
exempt from the imposition and collection of a sanitary
district front foot benefit assessment until it is served by
or connected to the commission's water or sanitary sewerage
system, as the case may be, and if such property is not
within a drainage area or not otherwise provided service,
directly or indirectly, from a storm drainage system
operated or maintained by the commission, the sanitary
district ad valorem tax shall also be suspended, with the
suspension terminating upon service by or connection to any
of the aforesaid systems of the commission. The provisions