(1) “Assessed value basis” means the plan for making annual improvement assessments according to the assessed values of benefited properties, as assessed for purposes of municipal property taxation, or as provided by this part. Such assessed values shall be the measure of benefits to benefited property or property to be benefited;

(2) “Benefited property” or “property to be benefited” means, as determined by the governing body, land, excluding improvement, that is within a reasonable distance from a sanitary sewer and to which is made available a means of drainage for sewage, or that abuts on a street or other public way to be improved;

(3) “Costs” means cost of labor, materials, equipment necessary to complete an improvement, land, easements, and other necessary expenses connected with an improvement, including preliminary and other surveys, inspections of the work, engineers' fees and costs, attorneys' fees, fiscal agents' fees, preparation of plans and specifications, publication expenses, interest that may become due on bonds before collection of the first improvement assessments, a reasonable allowance for unforeseen contingencies, and other costs of financing;

(4) “Governing body” means the board or body in which the general legislative powers of a municipality are vested;

(5) “Improvement” means the construction, installation or substantial reconstruction of sanitary sewers; construction, substantial reconstruction, or widening of streets, sidewalks and other public ways, including necessary storm drainage facilities; the undergrounding of electrical and other similar overhead utility cables, including streetscape improvements; or any combination of the foregoing; provided, that “improvement” does not include any improvement of a street, other than necessary drainage facilities, exceeding thirty-six feet (36′) in width;

(6) “Improvement assessment” means an assessment made each year against benefited property to pay the costs of an improvement, in the proportion that the assessed value of each parcel or lot of benefited property bears to the total assessed value of all benefited property according to the latest assessments of such property for purposes of municipal property taxation or as provided by this part;

(7) “Municipality” means incorporated city or town; and

(8) “Sanitary sewer” means an underground conduit for the passage of a sewer, and pumping stations, pressure lines, and outlets where deemed necessary.