1. Except as otherwise provided in subsection 2, whenever the owner or owners of lands to be assessed for not less than 90 percent of the entire cost of any project, including all incidental expenses, constituting at least 66 2/3 percent in frontage, in area or other property basis used for the computation of assessments as therein provided, as the case may be, by written petition, initiates the acquisition of any project which the governing body is authorized to initiate, subject to the following limitations:

(a) Except as otherwise provided in subsection 7 of NRS 271.325, the governing body may incorporate such project in any improvement district or districts.

(b) The governing body need not proceed with the acquisition of any such project or any part thereof after holding a hearing thereon, pursuant to NRS 271.310, and all provisions thereof thereunto enabling, if the governing body shall determine that it is not for the public interest that the proposed project, or a part thereof, be then ordered to be made.

(c) Any particular kind of project, or any material therefor, or any part thereof, need not be acquired or located, as provided in the petition, if the governing body shall determine that such is not for the public interest.

(d) The governing body need not take any proceedings or action upon receiving any such petition, if the governing body shall thereupon determine by resolution that the acquisition of the designated project probably is not feasible for a reason or reasons stated in such resolution, and if the resolution requires a cash deposit or a pledge of property in at least an amount or value therein designated and found therein by the governing body probably to be sufficient to defray the expenses and costs incurred by the municipality taken preliminary to and in the attempted acquisition of the project designated in the petition, and if such deposit or pledge is not made with the treasurer within 20 days after one publication in a newspaper of general circulation in the municipality of a notice of the resolution’s adoption and of its content in summary form. An additional deposit or pledge may from time to time be similarly so required as a condition precedent to the continuation of action by the municipality. Whenever such deposit or pledge is so made and thereafter the governing body shall determine that such acquisition is not feasible within a reasonable period of time, the governing body may require that all or any portion of the costs theretofore incurred in connection therewith by the municipality after its receipt of the petition shall be defrayed from such deposit or the proceeds of such pledged property in the absence of such defrayment of costs by petitioners or other interested persons within 20 days after the determination by resolution of the amount so to be defrayed and after such published notice thereof.

2. A petition signed by owners of tracts constituting at least one-half of the basis used for computation of assessments is sufficient to initiate procedures for acquiring or improving a neighborhood improvement project. A petition for acquiring or improving a neighborhood improvement project must be accompanied by a plan describing proposed improvements and a proposed assessment plat when submitted to the governing body.

(Added to NRS by 1965, 1357; A 1999, 2867; 2015, 146)