Delaware Code
Subchapter VI. General Provisions
§ 4188. Addition of territory to a tax ditch.

(a) Any landowner who desires his or her lands to be included within a tax ditch formed under this chapter, may present a petition for an amendment to the existing ditch order to include such lands, to the Superior Court of the county which issued said ditch order through the board of supervisors of the soil conservation district of the same county, and the procedure shall be substantially the same as method in § 4189(3) of this title, for amending a ditch order, except that, in addition to establishing an assessment base which will be the basis for all future ditch taxes, for each parcel of land being included within the tax ditch, a special assessment, based generally on the approximate total amount of taxes that would have been levied against such parcels of land since the tax ditch was formed, had such lands been within the original boundaries of said tax ditch and other considerations, shall be determined by the board of ditch commissioners and payment thereof prescribed in their report to the Superior Court.
(b) In those cases when any landowner, directly or indirectly, alters lands to utilize any part of a tax ditch to benefit land which is not within the original boundary of the tax ditch as established in the ditch order and which was not assessed as part of the tax ditch, or which was not assessed to the prong or part of the tax ditch utilized by the alteration, and when the landowner or owners have not secured an amendment to the ditch order in accordance with the procedure set forth in subsection (a) of this section, it shall be assumed that such landowner accepts the liability for payment of a special assessment and costs incurred in processing an amendment to the ditch order, in addition to all future ditch taxes, and it shall be the duty of the ditch managers in the name of the tax ditch to present a petition for an amendment to the existing ditch order to include such lands, in the same manner as set forth in subsection (a) of this section and the procedure shall be the same as outlined in that subsection, except that estimated costs of processing the amendment shall be added to the special assessment which will be established by the board of ditch commissioners.
(c) In those cases when any landowner desires his or her lands to be included within a tax ditch and when agreement can be reached on the part of the landowner and the tax ditch managers as to the special assessment to be paid and the assessment base to be established as the basis for all future ditch taxes, then method (1) or method (2) of § 4189 of this title may be used to add the additional territory to the tax ditch.

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