ARTICLE XX STREET LIGHTS
Section 2001. Lighting.-The board of supervisors
may light and illuminate the highways, roads and other public places of the township
and remove, alter or improve lighting as may be appropriate and in the best
interests of the township and make contracts for securing and maintaining a
supply of light.
Section 2002. Street Light Districts.-(a) The board of
supervisors may provide streetlights and make regulations therefor within
the township or within any district of the township established by the board
of supervisors for that purpose.
(b) Upon receipt of a petition signed by seventy percent of the property owners
within any defined area of the township, the board of supervisors shall establish
the defined area as a lighting district or include the defined area within
an existing lighting district and shall provide public lighting within the
area.
(c) The board of supervisors may contract with electric, gas or other lighting
companies to light and illuminate roads and highways and other public places
with electric light, gas light or other illuminating substances.
Section 2003. Costs.-(a) The board of supervisors may pay
for the cost of public lighting by any one or a combination of the following
means, whether the installation of the lighting was initiated by action of
the board of supervisors or by petition:
(1) From the general fund.
(2) Through uniform annual assessments made upon benefited properties on the
foot-front basis.
(3) By uniform annual assessment upon each property benefited.
(4) By an equal assessment upon each property benefited, based upon the assessment
for county tax purposes.
(5) By any combination of the above methods or other equitable means of assessment
as the board of supervisors may determine.
(b) If public street lighting is currently in existence and is being paid
for by a certain means or method, the board of supervisors may alter or amend
the means of assessing the cost of the lighting.
(c) Properties are subject to assessment for this purpose, whether or not
the property is exempt from taxation by existing law.
(d) If the foot-front method of assessment is used, the assessment shall be
by equal assessment on all property in proportion to the number of feet the
property fronts on the street or highway or portion thereof to be lighted.
The board of supervisors may provide for an equitable reduction from the frontage
of lots at intersections or where, due to the irregular shape of lots, an
assessment of the full frontage would be inequitable. No assessment shall
be made against any farmland, but vacant lots between built-up sections, whether
tilled or not tilled, are not farmland. The assessment for each foot front
against vacant lots shall be only twenty-five percent of the assessment for
each foot front against property with improvements.
(e) All annual assessments for streetlights shall be filed with the township
tax collector under section 3301(a). The assessment may be billed on the annual
real estate tax bill for general township purposes if authorized by the board
of supervisors.