Article 1. Exclusion Of Unincorporated Territory of California Public Utilities Code >> Division 10. >> Part 1. >> Chapter 10. >> Article 1.

Any territory contained within a district not being served by any transit facilities of the district and not included within the boundaries of any incorporated city and not benefited in any manner by the district or by its continued inclusion therein may be excluded therefrom by order of the board upon the verified petition of the owners in fee of lands whose assessed value with improvements is in excess of one-half of the assessed value of all the lands with improvements held in private ownership in the territory sought to be excluded.

The petition shall describe the territory sought to be excluded and shall set forth that the territory is not benefited in any manner by the district or by its continued inclusion therein, and shall pray that the territory be excluded from the district.

The petition shall be filed with the secretary of the district and shall be accompanied by a deposit with the secretary of the sum of one hundred dollars ($100) to meet the expenses of advertising and other costs incident to the proceedings for the exclusion of the territory, including the cost of recording a certified copy of the order provided for in this chapter. Any unconsumed balance of the deposit shall be returned to the petitioners.

Upon the filing of the petition the secretary shall cause it to be set for hearing at a regular or adjourned regular meeting of the board and shall cause a notice of the filing thereof to be published. The notice shall also state the date of the filing of the petition and that it will come on for hearing before the board and shall state the time and place of the hearing. The time fixed for hearing shall not be less than 30 days from the date of the first publication of the notice. The property to be excluded may or may not be specifically described in the notice, but if not described the notice shall refer to the petition on file with the secretary for a particular description of the property sought to be excluded.

Any landowner or taxpayer within the district may appear at the hearing either in behalf of or in opposition to the granting of the petition.

The petition shall come on for hearing before the board at the time and place specified in the notice of hearing.

If upon the hearing the board determines that it is for the best interests of the district that the lands mentioned in the petition or some portion thereof be excluded from the district, or if it appears that the lands or some portion thereof will not be benefited by their continued inclusion in this district, then the board shall make an order that the lands, or such portion thereof as the board may determine, be excluded from the district, describing specifically the lands so excluded.

A copy of the order of exclusion certified by the secretary of the district shall be recorded in the office of the county recorder of the county in which the lands are situated. The record of the certified copy is prima facie evidence of the exclusion from the district of the lands purporting to be excluded thereby.

From and after the making of the order of exclusion and the record thereof the lands excluded are no longer included in the district. The order of exclusion does not invalidate in any manner any taxes or assessments theretofore levied or assessed against the lands excluded nor relieve the property excluded from any outstanding bonds which are a lien thereon at the time of exclusion, nor from any taxes to pay the principal or interest thereof.