Effective 28 Aug 1941

233.175. Petitions — notice — remonstrances, order of county commission. — 1. Whenever a petition, signed by the owners of a majority of the acres of land within a district proposed to be organized, and setting forth the proposed name of the district, and giving the boundaries thereof and the number of acres owned by each signer of such petition, and the whole number of acres embraced therein, and the names of other owners of land within such boundaries so far as known, and the number of acres owned by each so far as known, and praying for the organization of a public road district in accordance with sections 233.170 to 233.315, shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the county commission thirty days before the beginning of the next regular term of said commission, the said clerk shall give notice by at least three publications in some weekly newspaper printed in the county and by at least five handbills put up at public places within the district of the presentation of said petition, and of the date of the beginning of the next regular term of the county commission at which the same may be heard. Said notices shall contain the names of at least three signers of said petition and set out the boundaries of said proposed district, and shall notify all owners of land in the then existing district who may desire to oppose the formation thereof to appear on the first day of such regular term of the county commission and file their written remonstrance thereto.

2. All landowners owning land in the then existing district may join in one remonstrance, or each such owner may file his separate remonstrance, and each remonstrance shall be in writing, and shall state specifically and separately the objection or objections of the remonstrators to the formation of such proposed road district, and shall be filed in said county commission with the clerk thereof on or before the first day of said regular term.

3. On the first day of said term of the county commission, or as soon thereafter as its business will permit, the county commission shall hear such petition and remonstrance, and shall make any change in the boundaries of such proposed district as the public good may require and make necessary, and if after such changes are made it shall appear to the county commission that such petition is signed or in writing consented to by the owners of a majority of all the acres of land within the district as so changed, the county commission may, if in its discretion it finds that the public good will be benefitted, make an order incorporating such public road district, and such order shall set out the boundaries of such district as established. If no remonstrance shall have been filed, or all remonstrances filed are overruled by the county commission, the commission shall determine whether such petition has been signed by the owners of a majority of the acres of land in the district, and if so, shall make an order incorporating the district with the boundaries given in the petition, or with such boundaries as may be set forth in an amended petition signed by the owners of a majority of the acres of land affected thereby; and such amended petition may be filed at any time before the making of the order establishing a road district, but the boundaries proposed for the district shall not be so changed as to embrace any land not included in the notice given by the clerk unless the owner thereof shall in writing consent thereto, or shall appear at the hearing, and is notified in an open meeting of the county commission of such fact and given an opportunity to file or join in a remonstrance.

4. Whenever an order is so made incorporating a public road district such district shall thereupon become, by the name mentioned in such order, a political subdivision of the state for governmental purposes with all the powers mentioned in this section and such others as may be conferred by law.

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(RSMo 1939 § 8711, A.L. 1941 p. 529)

Prior revisions: 1929 § 8062; 1919 § 10834; 1909 § 10612