1. 1. The board shall, on the petition of twenty-five percent of the residents of a proposed rural improvement zone, if the assessed valuation of the property owned by the petitioners represents at least twenty-five percent of the total assessed value of the proposed zone, hold a public hearing concerning the establishment of a proposed zone. The petition shall include a statement containing the following information:

   1. a. The need for the proposed zone, which shall be based upon a report of a licensed professional engineer prepared not more than two years before the date the petition is filed, and that includes all of the following:

      1. (1) Surface area of the lake in acres.
      2. (2) Number of acres of land comprising the lake’s watershed.
      3. (3) Soil classification of the land comprising the lake’s watershed.
      4. (4) Description of all current land uses within the lake’s watershed.
      5. (5) Estimate of historical annual silt accumulation for the lake during the twenty years immediately preceding the year in which the engineer’s report was completed.
      6. (6) Estimate of the amount of silt currently accumulated in the lake.
      7. (7) Estimates of annual silt accumulation in the lake for the twenty-year period following establishment of the rural improvement zone.
      8. (8) Estimate of remaining space available to the proposed zone in existing detention basins for storage of dredged and removed silt.
      9. (9) Estimate of storage space that will be required to store dredged and removed silt from the lake for the twenty-year period following establishment of the rural improvement zone.
      10. (10) Assessment of the current water quality of the lake.
      11. (11) Assessment of the current need for preventative practices to improve the water quality of the lake.
      12. (12) Assessment of the impact preventative practices will have on the water quality of the lake.
      13. (13) Estimate of the cost to effectively address erosion control and water quality for the twenty-year period following establishment of the rural improvement zone.
   2. b. A description of the boundaries of the proposed zone.
   3. c. The approximate number of families in the proposed zone.
2. 2. A copy of the report prepared by the licensed professional engineer and used to prepare the petition shall be submitted with the petition under this section.
3. 3. The board may require the petitioners to post a bond conditioned upon the payment of all costs and expenses incurred in the proceedings if the zone is not established.

97 Acts, ch 152, §2; 2015 Acts, ch 97, §4, 5

Referred to in §357H.1, 357H.3, 357H.10