A. The organization of a district shall be initiated by a petition filed in the office of the clerk of the court vested with jurisdiction in a county in which all or part of the real property in the proposed district is situated. The petition shall be signed by not less than twenty-five percent of the qualified electors of the district, none of whom shall be an officer, director or shareholder of any business entity with an economic interest in the subdivision and sale of land within the district; provided that at the option of a county and, after adoption of a resolution by the county authorizing the filing of a petition, that county may file a petition that shall be signed by the chair of the board of county commissioners. The petition and all other instruments relating to the formation of such districts shall be filed in the office of the county clerk of the county or counties in which the proposed district is located.

B. The petition shall set forth:

(1) the name of the proposed district consisting of a chosen name preceding the words "water and sanitation district";

(2) a general description of the improvements to be constructed or installed within and for the district;

(3) the estimated overall cost of the proposed improvements to be constructed or installed within and for the district;

(4) an estimated time table for the completion of all intended improvements;

(5) the need for the creation of the district and the construction or installation of improvements, stating the nature and extent of the anticipated use of the improvements by persons presently residing on land within the district and the nature and extent of the anticipated use of the improvements due to future development;

(6) a general description of the boundaries of the district or the territory to be included in it, with such certainty as to enable a property owner to determine whether or not the owner's property is within the district;

(7) the salary, if any, that the members of the board shall receive for their services; and

(8) a request for the organization of the district.

C. No petition with the requisite signatures shall be declared void on account of alleged defects, but the court may at any time permit the petition to be amended to conform to the facts by correcting any errors in the description of the territory or in any other particular. Similar petitions or duplicate copies of the same petition for the organization of the same district may be filed and shall together be regarded as one petition.

History: 1941 Comp., § 77-3405, enacted by Laws 1943, ch. 80, § 5; 1953 Comp., § 75-18-5; Laws 1977, ch. 345, § 5; 1985, ch. 155, § 2; 2019, ch. 212, § 260.

The 2019 amendment, effective April 3, 2019, removed a salary provision from the list of required contents of a petition to organize a water and sanitation district, and made certain technical amendments; in Subsection A, after "twenty-five percent of the", deleted "taxpaying" and added "qualified"; in Subsection B, in Paragraph B(7), after "for their services", deleted "provided, however, that no member of the board shall receive a salary in excess of five dollars ($5.00) per day for each day while in actual attendance upon his duties"; and in Subsection C, deleted the last sentence of the subsection, which provided "All such petitions filed prior to the hearing on the first petition filed shall be considered by the court the same as though filed with the first petition placed on file."

Procedure for creation of district not violation of equal protection. — The legislature may properly determine that, in order to protect taxpayers, any petition for the creation of a district must be approved by at least 25 percent of the tax-paying electors of the district without denying equal protection. Lower Valley Water & Sanitation Dist. v. Public Serv. Co., 1981-NMSC-088, 96 N.M. 532, 632 P.2d 1170.

District performs general governmental function. — As Section 73-21-17 NMSA 1978 gives a water and sewer district the authority to impose ad valorem taxes, such district performs a general governmental function involving the administration of sanitation and health services and is not of special proprietary interest. Lower Valley Water & Sanitation Dist. v. Public Serv. Co., 1981-NMSC-088, 96 N.M. 532, 632 P.2d 1170.

No jurisdiction over non-county. — Since Taos county, a class B county with a population of approximately 19,000, does not fit the definition of "county" in Section 73-21-4F NMSA 1978, requiring a population of over 90,000, Taos county is not considered a county for purposes of the Water and Sanitation District Act (this article), and the district court for that county does not have jurisdiction to establish a water and sanitation district. 1988 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 88-54 (rendered under prior law).

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 39A C.J.S. Health and Environment § 7.