Bill Text: AZ HB2597 | 2025 | Fifty-seventh Legislature 1st Regular | Introduced
Bill Title: Municipal improvement districts; enhanced services
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (N/A) - [HB2597 Detail]
Download: Arizona-2025-HB2597-Introduced.html
|
REFERENCE TITLE: municipal improvement districts; enhanced services |
|
State of Arizona House of Representatives Fifty-seventh Legislature First Regular Session 2025
|
|
HB 2597 |
|
|
|
Introduced by Representative Blackman
|
AN ACT
amending sections 48-575 and 48-576, Arizona Revised Statutes; relating to municipal improvement districts.
(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:
Section 1. Section 48-575, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:
48-575. Improvement districts for enhanced municipal services
A. In addition to the purposes for which an improvement district may be formed under the provisions of section 48-572, an improvement district may be formed within a designated area to provide public service within the district at a higher level or greater degree than provided in the remainder of the community, including such services as public safety, fire protection, refuse collection, street or sidewalk cleaning or landscape maintenance in public areas, planning, promotion, transportation and public parking. IF THE GOVERNING BODY DETERMINES THAT THE DISTRICT SHOULD BE FORMED AFTER THE FINAL RESOLUTION OF ANY PROTEST MADE PURSUANT TO SECTION 48-579, THE GOVERNING BODY SHALL SUBMIT WITHIN ONE HUNDRED TWENTY DAYS TO THE CITY OR TOWN CLERK A PETITION TO FORM THE DISTRICT THAT IS SIGNED BY OWNERS OF MORE THAN ONE-HALF OF THE TAXABLE PROPERTY UNITS WITHIN THE AREA OF THE PROPOSED DISTRICT AND THAT IS SIGNED BY PERSONS OWNING COLLECTIVELY MORE THAN ONE-HALF OF THE ASSESSED VALUATION OF THE PROPERTY WITHIN THE AREA OF THE PROPOSED DISTRICT. PROPERTY THAT IS EXEMPT PURSUANT TO TITLE 42, CHAPTER 11, ARTICLE 3 IS NOT CONSIDERED IN DETERMINING THE TOTAL ASSESSED VALUATION OF THE PROPOSED DISTRICT AND OWNERS OF PROPERTY THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO TAXATION ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO SIGN THE PETITION. ON VERIFICATION OF THE PETITION SIGNATURES, THE GOVERNING BODY MAY FORM THE IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT AND ORDER THE IMPROVEMENT AS OTHERWISE PROVIDED BY LAW.
B. The powers and duties of the governing body of the municipality and the procedure to be followed shall be as provided in this article for other types of special improvement districts.
C. If a petition for the formation of an improvement district under the provisions of this section is presented to the governing body purporting to be signed by all of the real property owners in the proposed district, exclusive of mortgagees and other lienholders, the governing body, after verifying such ownership and making a finding of such fact, shall adopt a resolution of intention to order the improvement pursuant to the provisions of section 48-576 and shall have immediate jurisdiction to adopt the resolution ordering the improvement pursuant to the provisions of section 48-581, without the necessity of the publication and posting of the resolution of intention provided for in section 48-578.
D. The engineer shall make duplicate diagrams of the property contained within the improvement district. The diagram shall show each separate lot numbered consecutively, the area in square feet of each lot, and the area in square feet of any building or buildings located on each lot. Prior to Before making any assessment upon on the district, the diagram shall be approved by the governing body.
E. The governing body shall make annual statements and estimates of the expenses of the district, and shall assess the total sum upon on the several lots, each respectively in proportion to the benefits to be received by each lot. When the assessments have been completed, the governing body shall fix a time when it will hear and pass upon on the assessments and the prior proceedings relating thereto, which shall not be less than twenty days from after the date of the notice. Notice of hearing shall be given in the manner provided by section 48-590, subsection E. Any person owning real property affected by the assessment who has any objection to the legality of the assessment, or to any of the previous proceedings connected therewith, may prior to before the time fixed for the hearing, may file a written notice briefly specifying the grounds of the objection. At the time fixed for the hearing or at any time not later than ten days thereafter to which the hearing may be postponed, the governing body shall hear and pass upon on the objections. The decision of the governing body shall be final and conclusive upon on all persons entitled to object as to all errors, informalities and irregularities which that the governing body might have remedied or avoided any time during the progress of the proceedings.
F. The assessments for the annual expenses shall be collectible in the manner and by the officers provided by law for the collection and enforcement of general taxes the municipality is authorized to levy. All statutes providing for the levy and collection of county and city taxes, including the collection of delinquent taxes and sale of property for nonpayment of taxes, shall be applicable to the district assessments provided for under this section.
G. An improvement district formed under the provisions of this section shall not be authorized to issue improvement bonds.
H. No improvement district formed under the provisions of this section shall be authorized to engage in any activity other than as provided in subsection A of this section. If the municipality is willing to participate in the cost of the district, the governing body may, by resolution, summarily order such participation.
I. The formation of an improvement district under the provisions of this section shall not prevent the subsequent establishment of improvement districts for any other purpose authorized by law.
J. If, in the opinion of the governing body, any territory of a district formed under this section is not benefited by being a part of the district, the governing body may, by resolution, may exempt such territory from assessment under this chapter, or if any portion of the territory of a district formed under this section is no longer benefited by being a part of the district, the governing body may, by resolution, may summarily delete from the district formed under this section any such area and may form a new district from the balance of the original district formed under this section.
K. Any real property that is within the boundaries of the district, that is utilized used for residential purposes and that is not specifically benefited by the public services at a higher level or greater degree shall be exempt from assessment pursuant to this section for that year. Existing improved real property utilized used for residential purposes with four units or less per building at the time of formation of the district is presumed to not be specifically benefited by a public service at a higher level or greater degree.
L. Within ten days after adoption of the resolution of intention to order the improvement, the municipality shall record the resolution in the office of the county recorder in the county in which the district is located in such a way as to give notice of formation of the district to all property owners within the district.
M. If, in the opinion of the governing body of the municipality, territory adjacent to a district formed under this section would benefit from being a part of the district, the governing body, by resolution, may include the territory in the district formed under this section if all of the following conditions are met:
1. Including the territory in the district will not adversely affect the district.
2. Notice of the proposed inclusion of the territory in the district has been published in five consecutive issues of a daily newspaper or two consecutive issues of a weekly or semiweekly newspaper of general circulation published in the municipality and a public hearing has been held to consider the inclusion of the territory in the district.
3. Notice, including an accurate map of the territory proposed for inclusion in the district, has been sent by first class mail at least ten days before the hearing prescribed in paragraph 2 to each owner of property listed on the tax roll within the district and in territory that is now or would be subject to taxation by the district in the event of inclusion of the territory.
N. Within ten days after the governing body of the municipality adopts a resolution pursuant to subsection M of this section, the municipality shall record the resolution in the office of the county recorder in the county in which the district is located to give notice of the inclusion of the territory in the district to all property owners in the district. If, before the governing body of the municipality adopts the resolution pursuant to subsection M of this section, a majority of the property owners, by area, of either the original district formed under this section or the territory proposed to be included in the district files with the governing body of the municipality written objections to the proposed inclusion of the territory, the territory shall not be included in the district.
O. An improvement district to provide enhanced municipal services may continue to exist in an area that is no longer in a designated area as defined in section 48-571, if at the time of district formation all of the following apply:
1. The area contained in the improvement district has been in a designated area for five or more years.
2. Not more than ten per cent percent of the frontage of the property fronting on the proposed improvement, or if the cost of the improvement is to be made chargeable on a district, not more than ten per cent percent of the frontage of the property contained within the limits of the improvement district, is owned by the same person.
3. Not more than one-third of the property owners by frontage of the area contained in the improvement district files with the governing body of the municipality written objections to the improvement district.
4. The municipality otherwise complies with the provisions of this article for the process of forming the improvement district.
Sec. 2. Section 48-576, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:
48-576. Resolution or ordinance of intention to order improvement; petition
A. Before ordering an improvement authorized by this article, the governing body of the municipality shall comply with both of the following:
1. pass a resolution or ordinance of intention so to do make an improvement, briefly describing the improvement. By the resolution or ordinance and the proceedings subsequent thereto, one or more improvements may be made on one or more streets and shall constitute one improvement and be constructed under one or more contracts. The resolution or ordinance of intention may be combined in a single resolution or ordinance of intention to open, extend, widen, straighten or close public streets or off-street parking areas pursuant to section 48-505. If the work proposed is already done for a lot, the lot shall be excepted from the assessment therefor to the extent of the work done.
2. If the governing body determines that the district should be formed after the final resolution of any protests made pursuant to section 48-579, the governing body shall submit within one hundred twenty days to the city or town clerk a petition to form the district that is signed by owners of more than one-half of the taxable property units within the area of the proposed district and that is signed by persons owning collectively more than one-half of the assessed valuation of the property within the area of the proposed district. Property that is exempt pursuant to title 42, chapter 11, article 3 is not considered in determining the total assessed valuation of the proposed district and owners of property that is not subject to taxation are not eligible to sign the petition. On verification of the petition signatures, the governing body may form the improvement district and order the improvement as otherwise provided by law.
B. When the proposed improvement, in the opinion of the governing body, is of more than local or ordinary public benefit, it may order the expense of the improvement chargeable upon on a district, and shall describe the extent of the district in general terms in its resolution or ordinance of intention, either by reference to street lines or block numbers, or by designating its exterior boundaries by their courses and distances from the street or streets the improvement of which is contemplated, and may refer for a more particular description thereof to a map on file with the city or town engineer, showing the exterior boundary lines of the district, and delineating block and lot numbers or containing such details as will show the location of the lines. A city or town shall not assess the costs of an improvement which that is for the general public benefit against land in an assessment district. If a portion of the expense of an improvement is for general public benefit, the city or town shall assess the district only that portion of the expense which that benefits the property within the district.
C. The governing body, in the resolution or ordinance of intention, may provide that the improvement described therein may be made according to any of several alternative plans and specifications, or methods, classes or kinds of construction, or classes and kinds of material to be thereafter determined by the legislative body.
