Streets and Highways Code, 1935

A district may include any number of public ways and one or more street lighting systems, but they all must be entirely within the city whose city council creates the district.

Before forming a district or charging assessment costs to land in the district, the city council must adopt a resolution of intention.

Before adopting a resolution of intention, the city council must direct the city engineer to prepare and file a report with specified lighting and cost details.

The city council must order the engineer to prepare and file a map or plat with the report.

The city council must examine the report and map, may modify either or both before the resolution of intention is adopted, and the approved report and map must be filed with the clerk.

The resolution of intention must list the lighting area, the systems to be maintained, the expected maintenance costs, district boundaries, the service period, and the required notice and hearing steps.

The city council may decide, in the resolution of intention, that some of the maintenance and operation costs be paid from the city treasury.

The resolution must refer to the filed map or plat showing the district boundaries, the public ways to be lighted, and the approximate location of the lights.

After the resolution of intention is passed, the clerk must publish it twice in a designated newspaper, and the superintendent of streets must post notice copies along the district’s open streets.

The city council must hear protest evidence at the hearing and may modify the maintenance plan, district boundaries, and cost percentages, but cannot add land outside the district or increase the district’s share without new notice and another hearing.

The city council may deny all protests by a four-fifths vote if it finds the improvements are needed for public health and safety. If certain nonmodifiable protests are sustained, the proceedings must be abandoned, though they may later be renewed. Land may not be included in the district if the council judges it will not benefit from the street lighting system.

The city council may proceed only after the protest and hearing conditions in this section are satisfied.

For highway funding purposes, California counties are divided into two groups.

The city council may form the district by final resolution, and the resolution must set out the district boundaries, maintenance items and costs, tax levy method, and the expense split between the district and the city.

A certified copy of the final resolution must be filed with the assessor, and the assessor must then separate the district property on the city assessment roll under the resolution’s district designation.

The city engineer must give the city council next year’s maintenance-and-operation expense estimate each year, at least 30 days before the city’s general tax levy, except in the first year. The city council must then levy a special assessment tax on land in the district when it makes the next general tax levy.

The special assessment tax must be levied, collected, and enforced together with other city taxes, and the money must go to the city treasury for the district fund.

The city council must control and direct district spending for maintenance and operation as set out in the final resolution.

Each year, when making the special assessment tax levy, the city council must set aside enough money from the designated fund or another available fund to cover the city’s share of maintenance and operation costs.

The city council may transfer money from the city’s general fund to the district fund.

The city council gets jurisdiction to order formation of the district and street-lighting maintenance and operation only by adopting a resolution of intention and publishing it as required by this part.

Minor errors or omissions by a city officer do not invalidate proceedings under this part if they do not affect the governing body’s jurisdiction to order formation of a district.

The commission or department must program certain transportation-improvement funds in a 40/60 split between County Group No. 1 and County Group No. 2 during the stated periods.

This section exempts certain disaster-recovery highway expenditures from this article and Section 825 if the Governor declared an emergency and the commission authorizes the spending by resolution approved by the Governor.

This section creates a toll bridge seismic retrofit account, directs its money to the department for retrofit or replacement funding, and sets rules for investment, notification, accounting, and limits on certain uses of interest income and reserve funds.

The commission must maintain and restore funding balances for regional improvement programs and make the balance available for regional agency review each year.

The department may transfer or loan funds between two specified highway-related accounts for cash flow and seismic requirements, but may not use State Highway Account funds for amenities or related shortages.

Toll funds or private expenditures used as a credit generally cannot be applied to projects outside the county where the toll facility is located, unless subdivision (b) allows it and the department finds no eligible project in the county cycle.

Maintenance of toll bridges under the commission’s jurisdiction must be paid from the State Highway Account.

Maintenance spending for state-owned toll facilities must be classified as Category A or B, and certain maintenance costs must be paid from specified funding sources.

This section directs and conditions funding for seismic retrofit or replacement of specified state-owned toll bridges, and requires the department to report cost overruns to the Legislature within 90 days.

If the department uses specified authority to issue GARVEE Bonds for certain highway projects, Government Code Section 14553.6 does not apply. State expenditures for this purpose may not exceed 5% of annual federal obligation authority, for a period the department تعیینs.

The section states that certain programming authorization should be available for state-owned toll bridge retrofit projects.

This section directs specified funding to bridge seismic retrofit and replacement work, including the East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and limits some funds to those purposes.

This section assigns funding and oversight rules for the Antioch Bridge and Dumbarton Bridge seismic retrofit projects and allows the authority to raise tolls for those projects.

Money paid to the department by the Bay Area Toll Authority is continuously appropriated for specified state toll bridge program purposes.

Certain expenses tied to specified state highway matters must be paid from the State Highway Account, and those expenditures are not subject to Sections 188 and 188.8.

This section tells the commission how to approve and calculate county share funding for regional improvement projects, including special rules for Tahoe-area counties and pooling resolutions.

The commission must allocate construction support costs when allocating construction capital costs for certain state transportation improvement program projects, and it must require a supplemental project allocation request if those support costs reach at least 120% of the original allocation.

State Transportation District 12 is created for Orange County, and it must have its own organization, staff, and facilities in the county.

This section defines “person” to include individuals and several business entity types.

Each annual proposed budget prepared under Section 165 must include $15,000,000, and that amount may include available federal funds for grade separation projects.

A city legislative body may use public money to reduce street-improvement assessments if it adopts a resolution by a four-fifths vote and makes certain benefit and fairness findings.

This part may be cited as the Highway Lighting District Act.

This part must be interpreted broadly to carry out its purposes.

This section says this part provides an alternative system for making the authorized improvements, and when proceedings are started under this part, only this part applies to those proceedings.

Chapter definitions and general provisions control how this part is construed unless a particular provision or the context requires otherwise.

This section defines “street lighting system” or “system” to include certain street-light illumination systems.

This section defines “clerk” or “county clerk” as a person or officer who serves as clerk of the county board of supervisors.

“Service” means supplying electric current, energy, gas, or another illuminating agent to all or part of a street lighting system.

“Governing body” means the county board of supervisors acting as the lighting district’s ex officio governing body, unless the context shows otherwise.

“Public highway” or “highway” is defined to include several kinds of roads and public places, including certain privately owned areas open to public traffic within a district.

A resolution to reduce assessments must identify the improvement, the amount to be appropriated, and the fund or funds that will pay it.

This section allows appropriations for certain assessment-relief and bond-related purposes.

An appropriation under this chapter may be made from certain city funds, including funds used for street construction, maintenance, improvement, repair, or acquiring rights of way, or from any other fund available for this chapter’s purposes.

An unincorporated area in this state may be established as a highway lighting district.

Proceedings to form a highway lighting district may be started by filing a petition at a regular board of supervisors meeting.

A petition for forming the district must include the proposed district’s name, its boundaries, and a statement that this part governs the proceeding.

The proposed district must use the statutory naming form, and if the district is established it must keep that name.

If a petition asks to make the District Investigation Law of 1933 inapplicable, the clerk of the board of supervisors must immediately send it to a county officer, who must certify the number of affected property owners and what percentage of assessed property value their signatures represent.

If the certifying officer certifies sufficient petition support, the board of supervisors may decide the District Investigation Law of 1933 does not apply, and the petition can be filed without a bond or other undertaking.

The county assessment roll, if it was last equalized when the petition was first presented, is conclusive evidence of ownership of taxable property and its assessed value.

An affidavit from the person who circulated and obtained petition signatures is prima facie evidence that the signatures are genuine and belong to taxpayers in the proposed district.

The board of supervisors must set a hearing date for the petition and any protests by interested persons.

The clerk must post notice of the petition filing and hearing at least seven days before the hearing, in three public places in the district.

The clerk must publish a notice in a qualifying newspaper once a week for two consecutive weeks, and the last publication must be at least seven days before the petition hearing.

An interested person may file a written protest by the hearing deadline, and the clerk must date-stamp and forward all filed protests to the board of supervisors.

The board of supervisors must hear and decide the petition and protests at the appointed time or any adjourned hearing time.

If someone protests the district boundaries or the inclusion of property, the board of supervisors may change the proposed district boundaries, but it must not extend them or exclude benefited territory, and it must leave out territory it thinks will not benefit from the improvement.

If an ordinance requires a subdivider to install street lighting, the board of supervisors may use an alternative resolution procedure to form or annex the territory into a district.

If no protests are filed, or protests are heard and denied, or authorized boundary changes are made, the board of supervisors may proceed.

The board may establish the district by resolution if the petition has enough taxpayer support and no election is needed.

The board of supervisors must order an election in the proposed district within 30 days after it acquires jurisdiction to proceed, and the election must be held on the next established election date at least 130 days after the resolution.

The election notice must be posted in three public places in the proposed lighting district and published in a local newspaper, if there is one.

This section requires the election to follow applicable state general election laws, requires ballots to include “For lighting district” and “Against lighting district,” and requires voters to mark the ballot in the provided space.

Every registered voter in the jurisdiction is entitled to vote in this election.

Precinct boards must canvass the votes under state general laws, and the board of supervisors may order the county elections official to conduct the official canvass within seven days after the election.

The department must prepare and send the Controller a report before each July 15 showing the amounts to be deducted from specified highway allocation sections.

Cities, city and counties, and counties may use certain transportation funds to pay their share of costs for protective facilities at mainline grade crossings.

If a majority of votes cast favors a lighting district, the board of supervisors must establish the district by resolution.

If most votes oppose the lighting district, the board of supervisors must declare it defeated, and no new lighting district proceedings may start for one year after the defeated petition is filed.

The board of supervisors must record the filing of the petition and the resolution establishing the lighting district in its minutes.

The county board of supervisors for an established lighting district serves as the district’s governing body and receives no compensation for that service.

The district may sue and be sued.

The governing body of the highway lighting district must make rules, plan and supervise highway lighting, manage lights and contracts, set employee terms, and designate lighting hours.

The governing body must set restrictions, conditions, and wire-and-light locations so the installation and service cause the least possible public or private inconvenience.

The governing body may start proceedings to install and maintain additional lights on its own initiative, and must do so when it receives a qualifying written request or petition.

The governing body must estimate the cost of additional lights, use reserve funds if available, levy a tax or assessment in the first possible fiscal year, and then install the lights once funds are sufficient.

If a board of supervisors levies an assessment for installing or maintaining lights under this chapter, the assessment must be levied under Government Code Chapter 6.1.

If the governing body decides the district should not bear the cost of installing and maintaining the additional lights, it must end the proceedings.

The district’s governing body may replace an obsolete lighting system with a new county- or utility-owned one if the petition threshold and necessity conditions are met.

The board of supervisors may, by a four-fifths vote, replace an obsolete lighting system and establish a temporary zone to finance the work.

A petition may ask supervisors to create a temporary zone for financing replacement lights, and it must include specific descriptions, cost estimates, maintenance estimates, and zone boundaries.

When a petition is presented under this chapter, the board clerk must immediately send it to an appropriate county officer, who must certify petition-related ownership and valuation counts to the board.

If the certifying officer confirms enough qualifying signatures, the petition must be filed and the board of supervisors must set a hearing and give notice. If signatures are insufficient, the petition is denied.

The board of supervisors must consider the request to form a temporary zone and any objections filed against it at the hearing or any continued hearing date.

If the board of supervisors makes the required findings on a petition, it must establish the proposed zone by resolution, define its boundaries, and state its purpose and duration.

If a lights-replacement petition does not ask for a temporary zone, the board of supervisors must estimate the replacement cost and arrange a tax or assessment to cover it, then the governing body must carry out the replacement and ongoing maintenance.

Sections 19036 and 19037 apply to proceedings under this chapter.

A statement about a zone’s boundaries must be filed, along with a statement of how long the zone will last.

The governing body may authorize removal of the obsolete lighting system and installation of a modern system, and may arrange payment of related costs in equal periodic payments.

The board of supervisors may transfer county funds to the district for the zone’s benefit.

The board of supervisors must levy special taxes or assessments for the zone in the first applicable fiscal year, and later levy enough to cover additional costs of removing the old system and installing the new one.

If the board of supervisors levies an assessment authorized by Section 19176, it must do so under Chapter 6.1 of the Government Code.

A zone stays in existence for the time set in the establishing board resolution, then automatically ends unless there are unpaid obligations tied to special taxes or assessments in the zone.

Each year, the governing body must estimate district costs by September 1 and include certain lighting and related costs, including a reserve levy capped at 10% of the levy for other purposes.

If the board of supervisors levies an assessment under Section 19180, it must levy that assessment under Chapter 6.1 of the Government Code.

When the estimate has been made, the county board of supervisors must levy a special tax on all taxable property in the district at the equalized value needed to raise the estimated amount.

If a district is created too late to levy taxes or assessments right away, the board of supervisors may transfer county funds to cover district expenses until revenues are available. The governing body may also authorize immediate installation of the lighting system, and later the district must repay the county from the first available levy receipts.

If certain lights in a territory later become part of a lighting district, the governing body must include those lights and their future operating and maintenance costs in its estimate, and the lights must then be maintained as part of the district lighting system.

The special tax must be handled the same way as other county taxes, and collected money must be paid into the county treasury for the district fund.

A county may lend funds to a district for obsolete lighting equipment, and the board of supervisors sets interest and levies a special tax for repayment if a zone is formed.

Claims for money or damages against the district are handled under specified Government Code provisions, unless those provisions or other expressly applicable laws or regulations say otherwise.

When apportioning State Highway Account money, amounts contributed by others to pay for state highway construction, improvement, or maintenance are excluded from the expenditure calculations. Unspent annual or biennial balances for a county group stay credited to that county group unless this article allows otherwise.

If a city removes a street from public use or closes it to traffic, its governing body may set minimum maintenance requirements for that street, including drainage maintenance, as needed for public safety.

District revenue from the special tax and other district money must be paid into the county treasury for the district’s lighting fund, and that fund can be used only for the district and only as ordered by the governing body.

Remaining assessment funds must be transferred by the governing body to a qualifying city treasurer, or if no such city exists, handled through a separate fund and repaid pro rata to the original payers.

The governing body of a highway lighting district may create a capital outlay fund for replacing obsolete lighting equipment, must keep the fund in reserve until it is appropriated to a specific project, and may add certain unencumbered year-end surplus funds to it.

A city’s governing body may set maintenance requirements for all streets within city limits, including drainage maintenance.

Territory in the same county may be annexed to a highway lighting district, and annexation begins with a petition filed with the county board of supervisors.

The board of supervisors must set a hearing date after a petition is filed and give notice of the petition and hearing time.

The board of supervisors must consider the petition and any objections at the hearing date, and it may grant the petition, change district boundaries, and annex contiguous territory by order entered on its minutes.

Territory may not be included in the district if it will not be benefited, is not contiguous, or is not described in the petition.

An annexation order is conclusive evidence of prior valid proceedings, and the annexed territory becomes part of the lighting district and is taxed with the district after the order is made.

If a qualifying petition for annexation is presented and the petition expressly requests it, the board of supervisors must order an election in the territory to be annexed.

A highway lighting district territory may be withdrawn, and the board of supervisors may start withdrawal proceedings on its own motion or after receiving a qualifying petition.

The board of supervisors must schedule a hearing on the motion or petition and related protests, and set the hearing date between 15 and 30 days after the motion or petition is received.

The board of supervisors must give notice of the hearing before a proposed withdrawal of territory by publishing it at least 10 days before the hearing and posting it in three public places at least one week before.

Interested people may speak and object at the hearing. The board of supervisors must consider those objections and may approve withdrawal of territory, in whole or in part, if the stated conditions are met.

When territory is withdrawn from a lighting district, the remaining territory stays a lighting district until the district is dissolved. The withdrawal does not take effect until any outstanding service contract has expired or is modified or canceled with the service provider’s consent so the district no longer has to pay for future lighting service in the withdrawn territory.

A district dissolution proceeding may begin with a petition signed by at least 50 property owners and residents of the district, filed with the board of supervisors.

If a majority of votes cast at the district election favors dissolution, the district must be dissolved.

When the district is dissolved, title to its acquired property passes to a city with a substantial part of the district inside its boundaries, or otherwise to the county board of supervisors until such a city exists.

If the district still owes money when voters choose to dissolve it, the district is dissolved except for tax or assessment collection needed to pay that debt.

A highway lighting district may be dissolved when all of its territory is inside one or more incorporated cities, and the dissolution becomes effective after specified filings are made.

If all of a district’s territory is inside one incorporated city, the city legislative body takes over the district’s powers and duties and must carry out this part for that district.

If a district lies entirely within more than one incorporated city, its lighting fund money must be divided among those cities and paid to each city treasurer.

Each city must pay its proportional share of the district’s outstanding liabilities based on area.

Once the district’s territory has been absorbed into cities, the district dissolved, and its funds used up with obligations discharged, the cities’ powers and duties under the cited sections end.

A street lighting district organized under this part may be dissolved by the board of supervisors if the territory is annexed to a qualifying maintenance district or if a county service area is established to serve all the territory.

A district organized under this part may be dissolved by resolution of the board of supervisors if a public hearing is held and a community services district or city has been established to serve the area and has elected to assume the dissolved district’s assets and liabilities.

If the board of supervisors finds the Section 19280 facts exist, it may dissolve the district by resolution and may set the effective date.

The district’s dissolution takes effect when a copy of the board of supervisors’ resolution is filed with the State Board of Equalization and the county assessor, unless the board sets a later effective date in that resolution.

If part of a district is included in a city, that portion can be withdrawn, but the withdrawal becomes effective only after copies of the city legislative body’s resolution are filed with specified offices.

If part of a lighting district was detached before July 29, 1927, and the remaining district was dissolved, later money collected for the district must be distributed to the affected city or cities and the rest to the relevant road fund.

The department must spend allocated State Highway Account money on state highways, using locations determined by the commission, and may also use it to work on highways in state parks as allowed by law.