(1) Separate road districts, composed in whole or in part of one or of more than one supervisors’ district, may be created and organized by the board of supervisors of any county (a) upon its own initiative or (b) upon petition as follows:

(a) Whenever in the judgment of the board the public interest and the interest of the proposed district will be promoted by the creation and organization of a separate road district, the said board shall determine the boundaries of the district in such manner as the existing public highways, the territory tributary thereto, the engineering and topographical conditions, and other pertinent considerations render expedient, and shall accurately define the said boundaries by land numbers, by natural boundaries, by metes and bounds, or by combinations thereof, so long as said description may be clearly understood or would be sufficient as a description in a deed of conveyance. The board shall enter an order declaring its intention to create and organize a separate road district according to the boundaries so defined and made a part of said order.

(b) When a petition or petitions containing the boundaries of a proposed district, defined and bounded as hereinbefore required, signed by twenty per cent. of the qualified electors of the proposed district has been filed and presented to the board, requesting the creation and organization of a separate road district composed of the territory aforesaid, it shall be the duty of the board to make an order reciting the fact and to proceed thereupon with said proposal as is hereinafter provided.

(2) No road district shall hereafter be created which has an assessed value of property therein of less than Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($500,000.00), according to the last completed assessment for taxation, but this limitation shall not apply to the consolidation of existing road districts.