880

LAWS OF MARYLAND

Ch. 84

newspaper published within the county for three (3) weeks
and by handbills posted and circulated in the localities
where improvements are contemplated. The Commission shall
state in the notice the probable cost of the contemplated
improvements and shall further state in it that plans of the
improvements may be inspected at the Commission's office and
that any person interested in the improvements will be heard
by the Commission at a time to be specified in the notice,
but not less than ten (10) days after first publication of
it. If ten (10) residents and landowners in the sanitary
district in which the improvements are contemplated, within
ten (10) days after the last of the publications of the
notice, file a petition with the Commission protesting
against the proposed improvements, the Commission shall
grant them a hearing within [ten (10)] 15 days after the
petition is filed in the office of the Commission and after
not less than five (5) days' notice of the time and place of
the hearing by advertisement published in one (1) newspaper
published within the county and by personal notices
addressed to any one (1) or more persons whose names are
signed to the petition. After due hearing, the Commission
shall decide upon the reasonableness of the objections
stated in the petition and shall dispose of them by written
order concurred in by a majority of the Commissioners. The
order shall be published in the same manner as notices are
required to be published, and a copy of which shall be
mailed to any one (1) or more of the petitioners. If the
petitioners are not satisfied with the Commission's
decision, they have the right to take and enter, within ten
(10) days after the last publication of the order, an appeal
to the County Commissioners of St. Mary's County, who shall
review the Commission's decision and decide on the necessity
and propriety of the improvements contemplated and whether
the district can stand the cost of them. The decision of
the County Commissioners is final.

SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act
shall take effect July 1, 1981.

Approved April 14, 1981.

CHAPTER 85

(House Bill 1751)

AN ACT concerning

St. Mary's County - Building Permit

FOR the purpose of raising the maximum amount which a person
in St. Mary's County may be fined for commencing
construction without first obtaining a building permit
and without complying with certain other provisions of
law.