AN ACT AUTHORIZING ASSESSMENT OF SEWER BETTERMENTS AND PRIVILEGE FEES IN THE TOWN OF SALISBURY
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows:
SECTION 1. The sewer commissioners of the town of Salisbury shall utilize the assessment methods in this act to assess 100 per cent of the cost to the town of sewer projects upon the properties that benefit from each project unless a town meeting votes a different percentage with respect to particular projects. For the purposes of this act, “sewer commissioners” shall mean the board of selectmen or any other board or officer having charge of the repair and maintenance of sewers in the town of Salisbury.
SECTION 2. Notwithstanding chapter 83 of the General Laws or any other general or special law to the contrary, the sewer commissioners of the town of Salisbury may assess the cost of sewer projects by means of betterment assessments by the uniform unit method pursuant to section 15 of said chapter 83 or by means of privilege fees by the uniform unit method pursuant to sections 17 and 20 of said chapter 83 and may determine what portion of the cost for each project shall be assessed as a betterment or as a privilege fee. Potential units for undeveloped land shall be calculated on the basis of zoning then in effect and, for developed land, shall be calculated on the basis of existing use or zoning then in effect.
SECTION 3. Notwithstanding sections 15 and 17 of chapter 83 of the General Laws or any other general or special law to the contrary, the sewer commissioners of the town of Salisbury may assess privilege fees upon properties that were not subject to a betterment assessment with respect to a particular project if the properties later receive a benefit from the project by being allowed to connect to the project. The sewer commissioners may assess privilege fees upon properties that were previously assessed a betterment assessment or a privilege fee if, after such assessment, due to construction of a new structure or reconstruction, enlargement, alteration or renovation of a structure existing at the time of the betterment or privilege fee assessment or a change of a then-existing use, the sewer commissioners determine that the maximum sewage flow from the improvements upon the property or the change of use would increase above the maximum sewage flow previously calculated for that property under the uniform unit method; provided, however, that the total of the assessments pursuant to sections 15 and 17 of said chapter 83 shall not exceed the whole cost of laying out and constructing the system of sewerage disposal of which the common sewer is a part for which the assessments are made.
SECTION 4. Notwithstanding section 15A of chapter 83 of the General Laws or any other general or special law to the contrary, the town of Salisbury, at a town meeting, as to a particular sewer project, may, until actual assessments have been billed and added to a tax, redetermine whether to use a uniform unit method pursuant to section 15 of said chapter 83, or any special law, or whether to use a special assessment pursuant to section 17 of said chapter 83, or whether to use 2 or more of the methods provided in said sections 15 and 17 of said chapter 83 and said special acts, notwithstanding that a different method may have been used previously in assessing estimated sewer assessments.
SECTION 5. This act shall take effect upon its passage.
Approved, December 30, 2016