204.650.  Citation of law — definitions. — Sections 204.650 to 204.672 shall be known and may be cited as the "Sanitary Sewer Improvement Area Act", and the following words and terms, as used in these sections, mean:

  (1)  "Acquire", the acquisition of property or interests in property by purchase, gift, condemnation, or other lawful means and may include the acquisition of existing property and improvements already owned by the district;

  (2)  "Assess or assessment", a unit of measure to allocate the cost of an improvement among property or properties within a sanitary sewer improvement area based on an equitable method of determining benefits to any such property resulting from an improvement;

  (3)  "Consultant", engineers, architects, planners, attorneys, financial advisors, accountants, investment bankers, and other persons deemed competent to advise and assist the governing body of the district in planning and making improvements;

  (4)  "Cost", all costs incurred in connection with an improvement, including but not limited to costs incurred for the preparation of preliminary reports, preparation of plans and specifications, preparation and publication of notices of hearings, resolutions, ordinances, and other proceedings, fees, and expenses of consultants, interest accrued on borrowed money during the period of construction, underwriting costs, and other costs incurred in connection with the issuance of bonds or notes, establishment of reasonably required reserve funds for bonds or notes, the cost of land, materials, labor, and other lawful expenses incurred in planning, acquiring, and doing any improvement, reasonable construction contingencies, and work done or services performed by the district in the administration and supervision of the improvement;

  (5)  "District or common sewer district", any public sanitary sewer district or reorganized common sewer district established and existing under this chapter or chapter 249 and any metropolitan sewer district organized under the constitution of this state;

  (6)  "Improve", to construct, reconstruct, maintain, restore, replace, renew, repair, install, equip, extend, or to otherwise perform any work that will provide a new sanitary sewer facility or enhance, extend, or restore the value or utility of an existing sanitary sewer facility;

  (7)  "Improvement", any one or more sanitary sewer facilities or improvements that confer a benefit on property within a definable area and may include or consist of a reimprovement of a prior improvement.  Improvements include but are not limited to the following activities:

  (a)  To acquire property or interests in property when necessary or desirable for any purpose authorized by sections 204.650 to 204.672;

  (b)  To improve sanitary sewers, wastewater treatment plants, lagoons, septic tanks and systems, and any and all other sanitary sewer and wastewater collection and treatment systems of any type, whether located on improved or unimproved public or private property, the general object and nature of which will either preserve, maintain, improve, or promote the general public health, safety, and welfare, or the environment, regardless of technology used;

  (8)  "Sanitary sewer improvement area", an area of a district with defined limits and boundaries that is created by petition under sections 204.650 to 204.672 and that is benefitted by an improvement and subject to assessments against the real property for the cost of the improvement, provided that no such improvement area shall include any real property within the certificated boundaries of any sewer corporation providing service under a certificate of convenience and necessity granted by the public service commission;

  (9)  "User fee", a fee established and imposed by a district to pay an assessment, in periodic installments, for improvements made in a sanitary sewer improvement area that benefit the property within such area that is subject to the assessment.