Sec. 12. (a) This section does not apply to undertakings in compliance with orders of the department of environmental management for which no objections are authorized.

     (b) Forty (40) or more owners of property connected or to be connected to and served by sewage works authorized by a resolution under section 10(a) of this chapter may file a written petition objecting to the construction or acquisition of the works. The petition must be filed with the municipal legislative body, must contain the names and addresses of the petitioners, and must set forth the following objections:

(1) The works are not required by the public needs.

(2) The cost of the proposed works would be excessive considering the value of the service to be rendered to the affected community.

(3) Any other ground of objection.

The petition shall be filed within twenty (20) days after the publication of notice under section 10(b) of this chapter.

     (c) Unless the proposed works are abandoned, the municipal clerk shall file in the office of the clerk of the circuit or superior court of the county a copy of the resolution or resolutions together with the petition. The court shall then set the matter for hearing at the earliest date possible, which must be within twenty (20) days after the filing of the petition with the court. The court shall send notice of the hearing by certified mail to the municipality and to the first ten (10) signers of the petition at the addresses shown on the petition. All interested parties shall appear in the court without further notice, and the municipality may not conduct any further proceedings concerning the works until the matters presented by the petition have been heard and determined by the court.

     (d) The petitioners shall file with their petition a bond in the sum and with the security fixed by the court. The bond must be conditioned on the petitioners’ payment of all or part of the costs of the hearing and any damages awarded to the municipality if the petition is denied, as ordered by the court.

     (e) Upon the date fixed in the notice, the court shall, without a jury, hear the evidence produced. The court may confirm the decision of the municipal legislative body or sustain the objecting petition. The order of the court is final and conclusive upon all parties to the proceeding and parties who might have appeared at the hearing, subject only to the right of direct appeal. All questions that were presented or might have been presented are considered to have been adjudicated by the order of the court, and no collateral attack upon the decision of the municipal legislative body or order of the court is permitted.

     (f) If the court sustains the petition, or if it is sustained on appeal, the municipal legislative body may not institute any further proceedings for the construction of the sewage works described in the resolution or resolutions for a period of one (1) year after the date of the order, unless the construction is required by a subsequent order of the state department of environmental management to abate water pollution.

[Pre-Local Government Recodification Citation: 19-2-5-6 part.]

As added by Acts 1981, P.L.309, SEC.96. Amended by P.L.143-1985, SEC.198; P.L.163-2017, SEC.5.