(1) Whenever the city council of any city of the first class or city of the second class or the village board of trustees of a village deems it necessary and advisable to extend municipal water service or municipal sanitary sewer service to territory beyond the existing systems, such municipal officials may, by ordinance, create a district or districts to be known as sanitary sewer extension districts or water extension districts for such purposes, and such district or districts may include properties within the corporate limits of the municipality and the extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction as established pursuant to section 16-901 or 17-1002.

(2) The owners of lots and lands abutting upon a street, avenue, or alley, or part thereof, may petition the city council or village board of trustees to create a sanitary sewer extension district or a water extension district. The petition shall be signed by owners representing at least two-thirds of the front footage abutting upon the street, avenue, or alley, or part thereof, within the proposed district, which will become subject to an assessment for the cost of the improvement.

(3) If creation of such district is not initiated by petition, a vote of at least three-fourths of all the members of the city council or village board of trustees shall be required to adopt the ordinance creating the district.

(4) Such ordinance shall state the size and kind of sewer mains or water mains proposed to be constructed in such district and shall designate the location and terminal points thereof. Such ordinance shall also refer to the plans and specifications for such utility extensions which shall have been made and filed with the city clerk or village clerk by the city engineer or village engineer prior to the introduction of the ordinance, and the city engineer or village engineer at the time of filing such plans and specifications shall make and file an estimate of the total cost of the proposed utility extension. The ordinance shall also state the outer boundaries of the district or districts in which it is proposed to make special assessments.

(5) Upon creation of an extension district, whether by vote of the governing body or by petition, the city council or village board of trustees shall order the sewer extension main or water extension main laid and, to the extent of special benefit, assess the cost thereof against the property which abuts upon the street, avenue, or alley, or part thereof, which is located in the district.

Annotations

Water extension districts established pursuant to this section must consist of territory beyond the existing municipal water system. Garden Dev. Co. v. City of Hastings, 231 Neb. 477, 436 N.W.2d 832 (1989).

Ordinance creating sanitary sewer extension district was void for failure to state the outer boundaries of the district; either a course or a distance was in error. Christensen v. City of Tekamah, 230 Neb. 576, 432 N.W.2d 798 (1988).

A water extension district is an area of land or contiguous tracts of land located apart and outside and served by an existing municipal water system, wherein water extension mains are to be constructed and service extended. Matzke v. City of Seward, 193 Neb. 211, 226 N.W.2d 340 (1975).

Special assessments are charges imposed by law on land to defray the expense of a local municipal improvement on the theory that the property owner has received special benefits therefrom in excess of the benefits accrued to people generally, and a property owner who attacks a special assessment as void has the burden of establishing its invalidity. Midwest Development Corp. v. City of Norfolk, 192 Neb. 475, 222 N.W.2d 566 (1974).