NRS539.716. Conditions precedent to annexation; apportionment and assessment of benefits.

      1.  The board of directors may require as a condition to the granting of the petition that the petitioners shall pay to the district such sums as nearly as the same can be estimated as the petitioners or their grantors would theretofore have been required to pay had such lands been included in the district at the time the same was originally organized, and may apportion such benefits as are just and equitable to such lands in accordance with the benefits derived or which will accrue to each tract or subdivision thereof from the construction or proposed construction of a drainage works or other works, or the purchase or proposed purchase of any works for the district.

      2.  The board of directors shall examine each tract or legal subdivision of such annexed lands or proposed annexed lands and shall determine the benefits which will accrue or which have accrued, and such lands shall be apportioned their pro rata share of the cost of such works in proportion to the benefits derived by the lands therefrom.

      3.  The board shall make or cause to be made a list of such apportionment or distribution, which list shall contain a complete description of each subdivision or tract of land so annexed or proposed to be annexed with the rate per acre of such apportionment or distribution and the name of the owner thereof, or it may prepare a map on a convenient scale showing each of the subdivisions or tracts with the rate per acre of such apportionment entered thereon; but where all or any portion of the lands are apportioned benefits by the board at the same rate, a general statement to that effect shall be sufficient.

      4.  Whenever thereafter an assessment is made, either in lieu of bonds or an annual assessment for raising the interest on bonds, or any portion of the principal, or the expenses of maintaining the property of the district, or any special assessment voted by the electors, it shall be spread upon the lands in the same proportion as the assessments of benefits. The benefits arising from the undertakings for which special assessments are made may be distributed equally over the lands, or especially apportioned, and assessments or tolls and charges may be made or imposed as provided in this chapter, when coming within the designation of operation and maintenance charges, by way of a minimum stated charge per acre, whether water is used or not, and a charge for water used in excess of the amount delivered for the minimum charge, or such other reasonable method of fixing or collecting the operation and maintenance charge as the board of directors may adopt.

      (Added to NRS by 1967, 1614)