§11-54B-10. Amendment of self-help business improvement district ordinance.

(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), the governing body of the municipality may amend a self-help business improvement district ordinance upon the written request of the district management corporation or a representative group of the owners of the real property located within the geographical area of the district. Such request must specify the desired amendment, which should be made by the governing body of the municipality to the self-help business improvement district ordinance. If such request is made by a representative group of owners of the real property located within the geographical area of the district, such request must also include the signatures of the owners of real property which comprises at least two-thirds of the total fair market value of all real property located in the district, determined pursuant to the provisions of subsection (a) of Section 11-54B-5.

(b) The governing body of the municipality may amend the self-help business improvement district ordinance to reduce or expand the real property comprising the self-help business improvement district in accordance with this subsection.

(1) The ordinance may be amended to reduce the real property comprising the district following the submission of a request for reduction by the board of directors of the district management corporation.

(2) The ordinance may be amended to expand the real property comprising the district following the submission of a request for expansion by both of the following:

a. The owners of real property located within the area that is to be newly included within the district as provided in subdivision (3).

b. The board of directors of the district management corporation.

(3) Where a request for expansion is sought under subdivision (2), the request shall contain the signatures of the owners of real property which comprises at least two-thirds of the total fair market value of all real property located in the geographical area provided in paragraph a. of subdivision (2). Ownership of real property and the fair market value thereof shall be determined using the records of the tax assessor or of the probate judge. When record title to real property is vested in a public corporation or authority under a bond financing plan provided for by statute, the beneficial user of the real property in which title may ultimately be vested by purchase shall be deemed the owner of the real property.

(4) A request for expansion or reduction shall include an accurate description, whether by metes and bounds, by lot and block numbers, or by street addresses, of the geographical area which is the subject of the reduction or expansion, as well as a similar description of the resulting district if such reduction or expansion was approved.

(5) At least 20 days prior to the date set for a public hearing on the proposed self-help business improvement district reduction or expansion, notice of the date, time, and place of the hearing, together with a description of the geographical area which is the subject of the reduction or expansion, shall be mailed to all owners of real property located within the geographical area which is the subject of the reduction or expansion, as ownership shown on the records of the tax assessor. In addition, a copy of the notice shall be posted in at least three places located within the geographical area which is the subject of the reduction or expansion. A property owner's failure to receive a copy of the notice shall not constitute grounds upon which the owner may contest the validity of a self-help business improvement district amendment.

(6) The municipality, upon review of the request for the reduction or expansion of the self-help business improvement district and after public hearing, may adopt an ordinance reducing or expanding the self-help business improvement district. The ordinance shall provide for an effective date which is 60 days from the date of adoption of the ordinance by the municipality and shall provide that, if the owners of real property which represent one-third or more by number of all parcels of real property located within the geographical area of the resulting district file written objections to the establishment of the district with the clerk of the municipality, the provisions of such ordinance shall be null and void and no reduction or expansion shall occur. The ordinance shall provide that the contract between the municipality and the district management corporation setting out the services to be provided by the district and the municipality shall be amended to provide that the same level of services provided by the municipality shall continue as before the reduction or expansion of the real property comprising the self-help business improvement district.

(7) There shall be no requirement that the real property located within the geographical area of the self-help business improvement district be contiguous.

(Acts 1994, No. 94-677, p. 1295, §10; Act 2007-479, p. 1017, §1.)