2023 West Virginia Code › Chapter 16. Public Health › Article 13B. Community Improvement Act › §16-13B-6. Petition of Property Owners for Creation of Assessment District

(a) After the meeting described in section five of this article, and before the governing body may adopt or enact an order or ordinance creating an assessment district, the governing body shall receive, within ninety days after the meeting, a petition in writing of (1) persons owning, in the case of a wastewater or water project, or both, not less than sixty percent of the frontage of the lots abutting on both sides of that portion of the public way located within the proposed assessment district on which the wastewater or water project or any part thereof may be constructed; (2) in the case of a flood relief project as defined in subparagraph (1) or (2), subsection (g), section two of this article, such percentage of property owners as the governing body shall have previously determined is necessary for such project to be economically feasible; or (3) in the case of a flood relief project as defined in subparagraph (3), subsection (g), section two of this article, persons owning not less than sixty percent of the lots which may receive flood relief protection from such a project, in each case requesting the creation of the assessment district and the completion of the project according to the plans, drawings and specifications submitted at the meeting, and agreeing to have their property assessed with the total cost of the project (or, if the governing body has previously determined that the assessments are only necessary to pay for part of the total cost, agreeing to have their property assessed with that part of the cost). The governing body may prescribe the form of the petition as it may deem appropriate, and the petition shall be held at all times in the office of the county clerk or the recorder, as the case may be, and shall be open to the public for inspection and execution during the normal business hours of such office.
(b) Upon receipt of the petition required under subdivision (2), subsection (a) of this section, and before the governing body may adopt or enact an order or ordinance creating an assessment district, the governing body shall establish, solely in the case of a proposed flood relief project as defied in subparagraph (1) or (2), subsection (g), section two of this article, a period which may not be less than thirty days or more than sixty days, during which any owner of property to be affected thereby may elect not to have the project undertaken with respect to his property, in which event the project shall not be undertaken on such property and such property shall not be subject to any assessments thereafter levied or any lien created pursuant to this article. Such election shall be submitted in writing to the governing body prior to the expiration of the election period so established.
(c) The governing body shall provide notice of the election period required in subsection (b) of this section to those persons whose property may be affected by such flood relief projects and shall set forth in the notice the property owner's election rights with respect thereto and an estimate of the assessments which may be levied against each lot or parcel of land so affected, based on the number of persons who signed the petition described in subsection (a) of this section, and shall also set forth the minimum number of persons who must elect to have the project completed to make the project economically feasible and the assessments which may be levied if not more than the minimum number of persons so elect. The notice shall be published as a Class II-O legal advertisement in compliance with the provisions of article three, chapter fifty-nine of this code, and the publication area for such publication shall be the assessment district. After the expiration of the election period, if the number of property owners not opting out of the flood relief project is less than the minimum number of property owners necessary for the project to be economically feasible, the governing body may, by ordinance or order, terminate any further actions concerning the proposed flood relief project and assessment district.