54715
. (a) The legislative body of a local agency may by ordinance
or resolution, adopted after notice and public hearing, determine and
propose for adoption an annual assessment on each parcel of real
property within the jurisdiction of the local agency, except that the
governing body shall not impose an assessment upon a federal or
state governmental agency or another local agency.
(b) The legislative body may establish zones or areas of benefit
within the local agency and may restrict the imposition of the
assessment to areas lying within one or more of the zones or areas of
benefit established within the local agency.
(c) The benefit assessment shall be levied on a parcel, class of
improvement to property, or use of property basis, or a combination
thereof, within the boundaries of the local agency, zone, or area of
benefit. Except as provided in subdivision (d) or (e), in the case of
a benefit assessment for flood control services, the benefit
assessment may be levied on the basis of proportionate storm water
runoff from each parcel. In the case of an assessment levied pursuant
to Section 54710.3, the assessment may be levied at a uniform rate
per parcel.
The assessment may be levied against any parcel, improvement, or
use of property to which such services may be made available, whether
or not such service is actually used.
(d) Whenever a railroad, gas, water, telephone, cable television,
electric utility right-of-way, electric line right-of-way, or other
utility right-of-way is included within an area proposed to be
assessed, the railroad, gas, water, telephone, cable television,
electric utility right-of-way, electric line right-of-way, or other
utility right-of-way shall be subject to the assessment only if, and
to the extent that, it is found that it will benefit from the
service, and the railroad, gas, water, telephone, cable television,
electric utility right-of-way, electric line right-of-way, or other
utility right-of-way shall be subject to the same penalties, and the
same procedure and sale, in the event of delinquencies, as other
parcels in the assessment area. In determining whether or not the
railroad, gas, water, telephone, cable television, electric utility
right-of-way, electric line right-of-way, or other utility
right-of-way benefits from the services provided, its use as a
right-of-way for a railroad, gas, water, telephone, cable television,
electric, or other utility shall be presumed to be permanent.
(e) Proportionate storm water runoff may be used as a measure of
benefit on an undeveloped parcel of land pursuant to this section
only if, and to the extent that, it is found that it will benefit
from the service.
For the purposes of this section, an undeveloped parcel of land
means a parcel of rural land in its undeveloped natural state,
although the land may be grazed, if otherwise undisturbed, in a
manner consistent with the normally accepted grazing land management
practices for that geographic area. An undeveloped parcel of land
also includes wetlands and marshlands if undisturbed and subject to
periodic inundation. For purposes of this section, rural land is land
which is outside of an urbanized area, as designated by the most
recent federal decennial census of the United States Bureau of the
Census.