§ 19.11. Preliminary assessment.

(a)

Having determined the total cost, the council shall make a preliminary assessment. The preliminary assessment shall be advisory only and shall be subject to modification. Except as otherwise provided in subsection (b) of this section, the preliminary assessment shall be as follows:

(1)

Roadway paving. No assessment shall be levied for the following costs:

(A)

The cost incurred at public street or alley intersections.

(B)

On streets abutting residential property, that cost of pavement in excess of thirty (30) feet in width, exclusive of curb and gutter, which cost shall be borne by the city.

Fifty (50) per cent of the cost of any roadway paving improvement (excepting (A) and (B) above) shall be specially assessed against the lots and parcels of land abutting the street containing the roadway paved, according to the frontages thereon, by an equal rate per foot of frontage, except that, where the petition so requested, the entire cost shall be assessed against the lands on one side of the street only, or against such lands as were designated in the petition.

In lieu of the above stated rate of assessment of fifty (50) per cent of the cost, the council may designate a uniform cost per front foot to be assessed for pavements installed during a certain period of time.

For the purpose of assessing for roadway pavement on a residential street, a thirty-foot wide street (exclusive of the width of curb and gutter) shall be deemed sufficient for ingress and egress to residential property. An assessment covering the cost of construction, reconstruction, or widening of a street abutting residential property shall not be greater than would have been necessary to provide this thirty-foot wide street. In computing the assessment, the property owner shall be charged with the cost of the curb and gutter plus the roadway construction costs for a thirty-foot wide pavement. This provision has no application to the assessment of the costs of sidewalks or driveways, the cost of which improvements are to be assessed entirely or partially to the abutting frontage, or to storm or sanitary sewers or water mains, which costs are to be assessed as provided under paragraph (2) of subsection (a) of this section.

(2)

Water mains and sewers. The cost of not exceeding an eight-inch water main, and an eight-inch sanitary sewer main, and not exceeding a thirty-inch storm sewer main shall be assessed against the abutting property. Assessments may be made on the basis of any of the methods set forth in G.S. 160A-218. If a water main in excess of eight (8) inches, a sanitary sewer main in excess of eight (8) inches in size, or a storm sewer in excess of thirty (30) inches in size is laid, the excess cost shall be borne by the city. If the resolution ordered the construction of any pumping station, outfall, septic tank or disposal plant, no part of the cost of the same shall be specially assessed. Nothing contained herein shall be constructed to limit the power of the council to contract with any property owner or owners for the construction of any pumping station, outfall, septic tank or disposal plant or for the construction of water mains or storm or sanitary sewers and for the assessment of the cost thereof according to the terms of such contract. The entire cost of each water and sewer lateral shall be specially charged against the particular lot or parcel of land for or in connection with which it was constructed, except that assessments shall be calculated as if the lateral were laid from the center of the street. The cost of installing storm sewers may, however, be assessed as part of the cost of roadway paving.

(3)

Sidewalks. The total cost of constructing or reconstructing sidewalks shall be assessed against the lots and parcels of land abutting that side of the street upon which the improvement is made according to their respective frontages thereon by an equal rate per foot of such frontage, the lots within a block being deemed to abut upon a sidewalk although the latter extends beyond the lot to the curb line of an intersecting street. The total cost of constructing portion of driveways within the street area shall be assessed against the lots for which they are constructed.

(4)

Grass plots. The entire cost of grading or otherwise improving or of planing the grass plots in any street or part thereof shall be assessed against the lots and parcels of land abutting the street or part thereof where or whereon the improvements are made by an equal rate per front foot of such frontage; provided, that this subsection shall be construed to mean that when a grass plot in any street is graded or planted or otherwise improved, the cost thereof shall be assessed against all of the property abutting the street within the block where such grass plot is located.

(b)

If the petition (or the resolution in those cases where the improvement was ordered made without petition) specified that there should be specially assessed against the abutting property a smaller portion of the cost of any improvement than that set forth in paragraph (2) of subsection (a) of this section, there shall be assessed against the abutting property only a proportion of the cost as was specified in the petition or in such resolution. No restriction or denial of access to an abutting street shall affect the levy or collection of any assessment for local improvements.

(c)

The cost of paving, water, sewer, and sidewalk improvements upon, in, or to any portion of a right-of-way or any property owned by the State of North Carolina, any agency or subdivision thereof, shall be assessed against the right-of-way or property and shall be paid by the state, its agency or subdivision.

(Sess. Laws 1981, Ch. 374, § 1(8))