Minnesota Session Laws - 1984, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1984 

                        CHAPTER 487-H.F.No. 1404
           An act relating to drainage; providing for correction 
          of certain errors in county or judicial ditch benefits;
          changing the fee for mailing certain notices; amending 
          Minnesota Statutes 1982, sections 106.465; and 106.531.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 106.465, is 
amended to read: 
    106.465 [REDETERMINATION OF BENEFITS.] 
    Whenever the board or court determines that the original 
benefits determined in a drainage proceeding no longer reflect 
reasonable present day land values or that the benefited areas 
have changed, or whenever more than 50 percent of the property 
owners currently benefited by a county or judicial ditch 
petition for correction of an error that was made at the time of 
the original proceedings that established the ditch, the court 
or board may appoint three viewers who shall redetermine the 
benefits and the benefited areas and report thereon, and the 
court or board shall hear and determine the same.  The 
proceedings shall be as provided in sections 106.151, 106.161, 
106.171, 106.191 and 106.201.  Such benefits and benefited areas 
as redetermined shall thereafter be used in place of the 
original benefits and benefited areas in all further or future 
proceedings relating to the drainage proceeding.  Any person 
aggrieved by the redetermination of benefits and benefited areas 
may appeal from the order determining the same as provided in 
section 106.631. 
    Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 106.531, is 
amended to read: 
    106.531 [DRAINAGE SYSTEM, USE AS OUTLET.] 
    After the construction of any county or judicial ditch, no 
public or private ditch or ditch system, either open or tiled, 
for the drainage of land not assessed for benefits for such 
ditch, shall be constructed so as to use the ditch as an outlet 
without having first secured express authority so to do from the 
county board, in the case of a system lying wholly within one 
county, or from the district court of the county in which a 
system lying wholly within one county was established, in the 
case where the lands for which an outlet is sought lie within 
another county, or from the district court that originally 
ordered the construction, in the case of a system extending into 
two or more counties.  This section shall be applicable to the 
construction of any ditch or drain that outlets water into an 
existing county or judicial ditch regardless of actual physical 
connection.  Any person desiring to so utilize an existing ditch 
shall petition the board or court.  Upon filing the petition, 
the auditor, or clerk with the approval of the judge, shall fix 
a time and place for hearing thereon and shall give notice of 
the hearing by mailed notice and publication.  Such auditor or 
clerk shall receive for mailing such notice, a fee of $5 plus 
ten 30 cents for each notice in excess of ten.  Upon the hearing 
the board or court shall consider the capacity of the outlet 
ditch and, if consent be given to construct the ditch or ditch 
system, shall fix by order the terms and conditions for the use 
of the ditch as an outlet and shall fix the amount that shall be 
paid therefor.  No private ditch or ditch system shall be 
constructed using the ditch as an outlet until the sum fixed by 
the order is paid by the petitioner to the county treasurer of 
the county wherein petitioner's property is located.  The amount 
so fixed for an outlet charge for any proposed public ditch or 
ditch system shall be deemed a part of the cost of such proposed 
ditch or ditch system to be paid by assessment against the lands 
and properties benefited by the proposed ditch or ditch system, 
as provided by section 106.341, and credited to the fund of the 
existing ditch.  The order shall also describe the property to 
be benefited by the ditch or ditch system and shall fix the 
amount of benefits to such property for the outlet.  The 
property so benefited shall be liable for assessments thereafter 
levied in such ditch system, on the basis of the benefits so 
found, the same as though such benefits had been determined in 
the original order establishing the ditch. 
    Sec. 3.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
    Section 1 is effective the day following final enactment. 
    Approved April 25, 1984