Article 3. Hearing And Order of California Water Code >> Division 21. >> Part 10. >> Chapter 2. >> Article 3.

The board, at the time and place mentioned in the notice of the filing of the petition for inclusion of lands, or at the time or times to which the hearing of the petition may be postponed, shall proceed to hear the petition and all the objections thereto presented in writing by any person showing cause why the proposed change of boundaries of the district should not be made.

The failure of any person interested in the district, or in the matter of the proposed change of its boundaries, to show cause in writing why the proposed change of boundaries of the district should not be made shall be deemed and taken as an assent by him to the change of the boundaries of the district as prayed for in the petition for the inclusion of lands, or to such a change of such boundaries as will include a part of the lands; and the filing of such petition shall be deemed and taken as an assent on the part of each petitioner to such a change of the boundaries as may include the whole or any portion of the lands described in the petition.

If the board, after the hearing, determines that the petition for inclusion of lands complies with the requirements of Article 2 (commencing with Section 75860) of this chapter and that the inclusion within the distict of the tract of land described in the petition, or some portion or portions thereof, will be for the best interests of the district, and if no protest against the inclusion of such land is made, or if such protest is made and enough signatures are withdrawn therefrom so that the protest is no longer sufficient, the board shall order the boundaries of the district to be changed so that the tract of land, or such portion or portions thereof as the board deems it for the best interests of the district to include, shall be included in the district.

If the board determines that only a portion or certain portions of the tract of land described in the petition for inclusion of lands should be included, the petition shall be dismissed unless:
  (a) The petitioners include a majority of the holders of title or evidence of title of such portion, or of each of such portions, of the tract, representing also at least one-half the area of such portion, or of each of such portions; or
  (b) Within 60 days from the time such determination is made, there is filed with the board the consent in writing, acknowledged or proved as required in Section 75861, of a majority of the holders of title or evidence of title of such portion, or of each of such portions, of the tract of land, representing also at least one-half of the area of such portion or each of such portions.

The order changing the boundaries shall describe the boundaries of the land included within the district, and if such land adjoins any portion of the district, the order shall also describe that portion of the boundary of the district which coincides with the boundary of the land included. For the purposes of the order, the board may cause a survey to be made of such portions of such boundaries as it deems necessary.

If more than one petition for the inclusion of land has been presented, the board may in one order include within the district any number of separate tracts of land.

Any public land of the United States may be included within a district, except as may be provided otherwise by federal law.

The board may require, as a condition precedent to the granting of the petition for inclusion of lands, that the petitioners severally pay to the district such respective sums, as nearly as they can be estimated (the several amounts to be determined by the board), as the petitioners or their predecessors in interest would have been required to pay to the district as assessments had the lands been included in the district at the time the district was originally formed.