Division 111. Drainage Improvement Districts  

    (65 ILCS 5/11-111-1) (from Ch. 24, par. 11-111-1)
    Sec. 11-111-1. Every city or village, whether incorporated under the general law or under a special charter, whose site is wholly or partially subject to overflow and wholly or partially surrounded by levees, dykes, or embankments to prevent overflow: (1) may divide the municipality, or any part thereof, into improvement districts, (2) may fix the grade of the streets, avenues, alleys, or public grounds within the improvement districts, at any height deemed necessary to give a surface drainage from each improvement district to the river or rivers which cause the overflow, and (3) may require low lots, blocks, or parts thereof, within an improvement district to be filled in such manner as to prevent water from standing thereon and thus to prevent them from becoming a nuisance or injurious to the public health, in the judgment of the corporate authorities of the municipality.
    The work authorized to be done by Sections 11-111-1 through 11-111-7 shall be done by special assessment or special taxation of contiguous property. Every city or village exercising the power granted by these sections has the same power in relation to special assessments or special taxation as is granted to any city, village, or drainage or improvement district in this state.
(Source: Laws 1961, p. 576.)

    (65 ILCS 5/11-111-2) (from Ch. 24, par. 11-111-2)
    Sec. 11-111-2. When an improvement district has been created by ordinance under Sections 11-111-1 through 11-111-7 the corporate authorities shall have an accurate survey of the work contemplated to be done, made by a competent civil engineer, and shall have that engineer make plats, profiles, and estimates of the work to be done. The estimate shall include the cost of all walls or other structures necessary to be constructed to hold the earth to its proper place, the cost of the work opposite or adjacent to each lot in the district, and the cost of the fill upon each lot within the district necessary to be filled. The survey, plats, profiles, and estimates shall be used in estimating the benefits to be charged against the lot or block, or parts thereof, within the improvement district. In estimating those benefits, the benefit the lot, block, or parts thereof, will receive by reason of being secured from overflow or sipe water may be considered.
(Source: Laws 1961, p. 576.)

    (65 ILCS 5/11-111-3) (from Ch. 24, par. 11-111-3)
    Sec. 11-111-3. When specified improvement districts have been laid out, the cost of the improvement has been estimated and ascertained by a competent engineer, and the benefits to the lots, blocks, or parts thereof, have been assessed, the municipality may issue a series of bonds sufficient to pay the special assessments or special tax so ascertained for each district. When so issued and endorsed as provided for in this section, these bonds shall be a lien upon the respective lots, blocks, or parts thereof, which are designated in the bonds. The bonds shall bear interest at a rate not exceeding the maximum rate authorized by the Bond Authorization Act, as amended at the time of the making of the contract, and may run for any term not exceeding 20 years. The style of the bonds shall be fixed and designated by ordinance. But before any bond is issued or put into circulation, the owner of any lot charged with such a special assessment or special tax shall endorse upon the back of the bond his consent thereto, substantially as follows:
    I hereby endorse the within bond, and consent that the lot or lots, or parts thereof therein designated, shall become liable for the interest and principal therein named, and that the bond shall be a lien upon the designated property from this date until paid off and discharged.
         ....
         (insert date)
         .... (Seal)
    The bond, when prepared and executed by the municipality, and endorsed by the owners of the property charged with the special assessments or special tax, shall be recorded in the recorder's office of the county in which the municipality is located. When so recorded the record is notice of the lien thereby created, to the same extent that records of mortgages are notices of the mortgage lien, and has the same force and effect. No coupon need be recorded. A record of the face of the bond and of the endorsement are sufficient.
    With respect to instruments for the payment of money issued under this Section either before, on, or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1989, it is and always has been the intention of the General Assembly (i) that the Omnibus Bond Acts are and always have been supplementary grants of power to issue instruments in accordance with the Omnibus Bond Acts, regardless of any provision of this Act that may appear to be or to have been more restrictive than those Acts, (ii) that the provisions of this Section are not a limitation on the supplementary authority granted by the Omnibus Bond Acts, and (iii) that instruments issued under this Section within the supplementary authority granted by the Omnibus Bond Acts are not invalid because of any provision of this Act that may appear to be or to have been more restrictive than those Acts.
    The amendatory Acts of 1971, 1972 and 1973 are not a limit upon any municipality which is a home rule unit.
(Source: P.A. 91-357, eff. 7-29-99.)

    (65 ILCS 5/11-111-4) (from Ch. 24, par. 11-111-4)
    Sec. 11-111-4. Any municipality, issuing bonds under Sections 11-111-1 through 11-111-7, shall provide by ordinance for the collection of an amount sufficient to pay the interest and principal of these bonds from the property charged with the special assessment or special tax. The special assessment or special tax shall be placed upon the tax books for collection, and treated in the same manner, and have the same effect as special assessments or special taxes have under Article 9. The municipality shall not be liable for the payment of the interest or principal of any of these bonds except (1) for their payment out of the special fund of the improvement district to which the bonds apply, and (2) for the faithful enforcement of the ordinances that provide for the collection of an amount sufficient to pay the interest and principal of these bonds.
(Source: Laws 1961, p. 576.)

    (65 ILCS 5/11-111-5) (from Ch. 24, par. 11-111-5)
    Sec. 11-111-5. If a railroad or street railway company has tracks located upon, or across any street in such an improvement district, then, in estimating the cost of the work, the railroad or street railway company shall be charged with the cost of the fill upon that street or crossing in the amount that it would cost the railroad or street railway company to make an independent embankment of the same height to receive its tracks upon that street or crossing. However, any railroad or street railway company has the same right to build its embankment or make its proportion of the improvement as is allowed to individuals. If a railroad or street railway company fails or refuses to comply with the municipal ordinances in this regard, the tracks of the delinquent railroad or street railway company shall be a nuisance, all of the railroad or street railway company's rights upon that street or crossing shall be forfeited, and the tracks removed as the work progresses.
(Source: Laws 1961, p. 576.)

    (65 ILCS 5/11-111-6) (from Ch. 24, par. 11-111-6)
    Sec. 11-111-6. If any property within an improvement district created under Sections 11-111-1 through 11-111-7 belongs to a minor or any other person incapacitated to contract, the guardian, or other person in charge of his or her estate, may apply to the circuit court of the county in which the district is located, by petition, for leave to endorse the specified bonds. When endorsed by order of the court, the endorsement shall be valid.
(Source: P.A. 83-706.)

    (65 ILCS 5/11-111-7) (from Ch. 24, par. 11-111-7)
    Sec. 11-111-7. In addition to the powers given by Sections 11-111-1 through 11-111-7 to municipalities to collect an amount sufficient to pay the interest and principal, the owner or holder of any bond has his personal remedy in any court against the endorser upon his endorsement, for failure to pay the interest or principal, and in case of 2 successive failures by any person liable on such a bond, the bond becomes due. Then the holder may enforce his lien for the interest and principal by foreclosure in any court of competent jurisdiction in this state.
    All the powers granted to municipalities by Sections 11-111-1 through 11-111-7 may be put into effect by proper ordinances.
(Source: Laws 1961, p. 576.)

    (65 ILCS 5/11-111-8) (from Ch. 24, par. 11-111-8)
    Sec. 11-111-8. Every city or village with a population of not more than 500,000 whether incorporated under the general law or a special charter, whose site is wholly or partially subject to overflow, inundation, or the unsanitary accumulation of sipe water or surface water, and wholly or partially surrounded by levees, dykes, or embankments to prevent overflow: (1) may divide the municipality, or any part thereof, into improvement districts, (2) may fix the grade of streets, avenues, alleys, or public grounds within the improvement districts at any height deemed necessary to give a surface drainage from each improvement district to the river or rivers which cause the overflow, inundation, or accumulation of sipe and surface water, and (3) may require all low lots, blocks, or parts thereof, or tracts of land, within each improvement district, to be filled to the established grade of adjoining streets, avenues, alleys, or public grounds, or in such manner as to prevent the overflow or inundation thereof, or such accumulation of sipe or surface water therein as in the judgment of the corporate authorities of the municipality would be unsanitary and injurious to the public health or safety.
    Such a city or village shall provide by ordinance for the making of such a local improvement and in that ordinance shall provide whether the improvement shall be made (1) by special assessment, or by special taxation of contiguous property, (2) by general taxation, or (3) by both methods. In order to carry out the purposes of Sections 11-111-8 through 11-111-10, such a city or village has all the power in relation to special assessment, special or general taxation, or for the issuance of bonds in payment of the cost of the specified local improvement, including the provisions of Article 9, granted to any city or village in this state.
(Source: Laws 1961, p. 576.)

    (65 ILCS 5/11-111-9) (from Ch. 24, par. 11-111-9)
    Sec. 11-111-9. When a specified improvement district has been created by ordinance under Sections 11-111-8 through 11-111-10, the corporate authorities shall have an accurate survey of the work contemplated to be done, made by the city engineer, if there is one, and if not, then by a competent civil engineer. This engineer shall make and file with the municipal clerk, plats, profiles, and estimates of the work to be done. The estimates shall include the cost of all walls or other structures necessary to hold the earth in its proper place and the cost of the fill upon each lot, block, or part thereof, and tract of land within the district, which must be filled under the ordinance. The survey, plat, profile, and estimates shall be used in estimating the benefit to be charged against the lots, blocks, or parts thereof, or tracts of land, within that improvement district by reason of the filing and protection thereof from overflow or unsanitary accumulation of sipe or surface water.
(Source: Laws 1961, p. 576.)

    (65 ILCS 5/11-111-10) (from Ch. 24, par. 11-111-10)
    Sec. 11-111-10. Each lot, block, or part thereof, or tract of land in an improvement district specified in Section 11-111-8, whether already filled to grade or not, may be assessed to pay the cost of the improvement according to the special benefit it will receive therefrom.
    When the ordinance under which the specified local improvement is ordered provides that the improvement shall be made wholly or partially by special taxation of contiguous property, the special tax shall be levied, assessed, and collected, as nearly as may be, in the manner provided by Article 9. However, no special tax shall be levied or assessed upon any property to pay for the improvement, in an amount in excess of the special benefit which that property will receive from the improvement. The ordinance is not conclusive of that benefit, but the question of that benefit and of the amount of the special tax are subject to court review, and shall be tried in the same manner as in proceedings by special assessment.
(Source: Laws 1961, p. 576.)