Ch. 187

LAWS OF MARYLAND

in actual use for farming or trucking purposes, may not be
assessed a [front foot] benefit ASSESSMENT CHARGE when the
agricultural land has constructed through it or in front of it a
sewer or water main, until the time a water or sewer connection
is made. When so made and for every connection, the land shall
become liable to [a front foot] AN assessment [for a reasonable
frontage,] OF A BENEFIT CHARGE, not to exceed [a
three-hundred-foot] 300 front FEET, as may be determined by the
Commission, and shall be assessed immediately at the rate of
assessment determined upon by the Commission for agricultural
land. Public parks or playgrounds owned by a municipal
corporation and any property or building owned by either a
regularly organized volunteer fire department or a volunteer
rescue squad, while so used for public purposes, are exempt from
the imposition of a benefit charge. The Commission may provide
further for a hiatus in the imposition and collection of a
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
benefit charge with respect to a water main when the owner of the
property otherwise subject to it 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 sewerage
system is not reasonably feasible. The suspension of the benefit
charge shall terminate at any time that a connection with the
Commission's sewer pipe or water main, as the case may be, is
made by the owner of the property. Upon that occurrence, 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 been exempted or
suspended initially and the exemption or suspension is no longer
applicable.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 municipal corporation or by a water or sewer
company subject to the requirements of the Maryland State
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, or if following
construction of the Commission line the property is connected to
the other specified public system pursuant to Commission
authorization, the property is exempt from the imposition and
collection of a sanitary district benefit assessment until it is
served by or connected to the Commission's water or sanitary
sewerage system, as the case may be. When the exemption or
suspension condition is no longer applicable pursuant to those
provisions which established the exemption or suspension, any
land or property exempted from or with respect to which there is
a suspension of benefit charges shall be classified by benefit
charge assessment purposes in its then current class and become

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