360.1 County Funded/Prioritized Projects. Improvement projects will be
prioritized per these policies
and procedures and shall meet the geometric and construction requirements
outlined herein unless variances are granted by the County Commission.
360.2 Tax Billed Improvements. Upon receiving a petition signed by a
majority of the resident lot
owners fronting on a street or roadway, the County Commission may levy special assessments and issue tax bills for all or part
of the costs of public works improvements; design and inspection costs,
construction (or reconstruction) of sidewalks, curbs, gutters, and
roadways. Tax bills may be issued
against property(s) fronting on said public works improvement as herein
provided.
360.2.1 Process. The following list outlines the process
for proceeding with tax-billed improvements
and issuance of tax bills.
1) County Commission shall direct the Road
& Bridge Superintendent to evaluate the request of the petitioners and
report to the County Commission on said request; including cost, time and
estimated completion date.
2) Any County participation of costs shall
be determined consistent with these regulations and funded through the normal
budgeting process.
3) Public
Hearing shall be scheduled with notices of public hearing mailed to abutting
property owners.
4) The County Commission shall either
approve or disapprove and shall so state reason on what grounds decision was
made.
If project is to proceed:
5) County Commission shall prepare contract and let bids to be
awarded to the lowest and best bidder, or at it's option, perform the work with
the county work force.
6) Construction
phase.
7) At
completion of the improvement, the Road & Bridge Superintendent shall
apportion all or part of the costs (as previously agreed upon by the County
Commission, Road and Bridge Superintendent, and petitioners) of such
improvement among the lots, parcels and tracts of land benefited by the
improvement, charging each tract of land with its proportioned share of such
costs. The Pettis County Clerk’s Office
shall mail notice of payment options with payment amount to property owners.
This notice shall be mailed by certified and/or regular mail.
8) Tax bills
shall be prepared by the County Clerk and forwarded to the Collector’s office.
9) Treasurer's Office shall mail property
owner a letter concerning the amount of his tax bill and payment methods available.
360.2.2 Prioritization
of Proiects. The following items shall generally be
used for determining the
priority of tax-billed improvements.
1) Improvements
to Non-Maintained Subdivision streets and roadways shall be the highest
priority under this program. This is an
effort to upgrade the streets to a level where they will be eligible for County
maintenance.
2) Improvements
to Non-Maintained streets and roadways outside of subdivisions which are being
used on a daily basis as part of the roads system. This is an effort to upgrade the streets and roadways which are
essential to the transportation network to a level where they will be eligible
for County maintenance.
3) County
maintained streets and roadways. This
will be part of a general upgrading effort of the streets and roadways within
the county.
4) Non-essential
street improvements which are incidental to the primary purpose or our roadway
system to move traffic, such as sidewalks, street lights, other utilities, etc.
360.2.3.
County Participation in Street Construction or Reconstruction. The
County will participate in the costs of street construction or reconstruction
as herein provided.
1) Streets
in New Subdivisions. The County will
not participate in the cost of streets and roadways within new subdivisions.
2) Private
Roads or Dedicated Non-Maintained County Roads. The County will not participate in the cost of improvements to
non county maintained roads.
3) County
Maintained Streets and Roadways. The
cost of constructing or reconstruction roadways outside of new subdivisions may
be charged by the levy of special assessments and issuance of tax bills against
the lots, tracts and parcels of land benefited by the construction or
reconstruction to the standard for local roadways. The county may participate in the cost of improvements as
recommended by the Road & Bridge Superintendent and approved by the County
Commission as follows:
a) Furnish
engineering and inspection costs;
b) Perform
in kind work.
c) Pay
for any added construction costs caused by improvements the County desires
which are greater than those requested by the petitioners or as required for
local streets.
d) Assessments
for issuance of tax bills sha11 be determined based on a maximum of one
thousand three hundred and twenty (1320) front feet per lot, tract, or parcel
of land.
360.2.4 Tax
Bills: form and content. Each tax bill shall contain a brief
general statement of the
facts authorizing its issue, the amount for which it is issued, the name of the
record owner and the legal description of the property against which it bears,
when it begins to bear interest, and shall state that it is a lien against the
land there in described, and give the time that the lien continues. Tax bills shall bear no interest for sixty
(60) days after the date of issue, at which time such tax bills shall be due
and payable in full. After the
expiration of sixty (60) days, tax bills shall bear interest, on the unpaid
balance, at a rate of eight (8) percent per annum. Every tax bill shall be a lien against the lot, tract or parcel
of land described there in for a period of ten (10) years after date of issue,
unless sooner paid. The lien, for tax
bills payable in installments, shall expire one year after the date of maturity
of the last installment or upon satisfactory payment in full of such lien,
except when it becomes necessary to bring suit to enforce the lien, in which
case the lien shall continue until the expiration of the litigation. Tax bills shall be prima facie evidence of
the regularity of the proceedings for such special assessment, of the validity
of the bill, of the doing of the work, and of the furnishing of the materials
charged for, and of the liability of the property owner(s) to the charge stated
in the bill.
360.2.5 Installment
Payments. The owner of any tract of land,
against which a tax bill has
been issued, may, not later than fifteen (15) days after the issuance of the
tax bill, enter into an agreement with the County to pay the tax bill in ten
(10) annual installments. Each payment
shall be in an amount equal to 0ne-tenth (1/10) of the unpaid balance of
the tax bill, together with all accrued interest. The agreement shall provide that if any installment is not paid
when due, the balance shall be then due and payable in full, together with all
accrued interest. Prepayments may be
without penalty.
(RSMo)
321.360 - 231.390
360.3 Non-
Priority Projects (Citizen Expense). Citizens who desire to have their
streets upgraded from gravel
to paved, or improvements to paved roads not scheduled and do not desire to
wait to be prioritized for projects funded, in whole or part, by the county or
designated as tax-billed projects may upgrade their streets at their own
expense. Suitability of drainage, road
base, and other design or construction features shall be evaluated on a
case-by-case basis to determine what part of the requirements are met with the
existing condition.
Plans may be required at the discretion of the Road and Bridge Superintendent depending on the extent of the work.