(a)  No city, town, quasi-municipal corporation or public corporation may assess the owner of an agricultural operation having frontage on a public roadway for the extension of water and sewer utilities past the property.

Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 42-82-16

  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Cost: when used with reference to acquisition of development rights, means as of any particular date the cost subsequently incurred of purchasing the development rights, property rights and all other necessary expenses incident to planning, financing, and implementing the provisions of this chapter;

    (5)  "Development rights" means the rights of the fee simple owner to develop, construct on, divide, sell, lease, or otherwise change the property in such a way as to render the land unsuitable for agriculture; this includes the exercise of the owner's rights to sell or grant easements or rights of way, or to sell the mineral or water rights or other rights if by that exercise the use of the land as productive agricultural land is diminished; but does not include the rights of the owner to sell, lease, or otherwise improve the agricultural land to preserve, maintain, operate, or continue the land as agricultural land or all other customary rights and privileges of ownership, including the right to privacy. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-82-2

  • town: may be construed to include city; the words "town council" include city council; the words "town clerk" include city clerk; the words "ward clerk" include clerk of election district; the words "town treasurer" include city treasurer; and the words "town sergeant" include city sergeant. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-9

(b)  The owner of the agricultural operation may only be charged if the owner has requested the utility extension. The agricultural operation may tie into any utility extension made past that property for the normal cost of tie-in and no cost for the infrastructure improvement except for its base usable charge. The protection afforded by this section shall be null and void and the assessments made if the owner of the agricultural operation develops or sells to other than a qualifying agricultural operation the property or farmland within twenty (20) years of the date the utility extensions were operational.

History of Section.
P.L. 1994, ch. 132, § 2; G.L. 1956, § 42-82-17.