7-12-4167. Provision for grading street by owner of abutting property. (1) The owner or owners of the lots or land fronting upon a street, the width and grade of which have been established by the city council or commission, may, after obtaining permission from the city council or commission, perform, at the owner's expense, any grading upon the street, to its full width or to the centerline of the street and to its established grade. The owner may procure, at the owner's expense, a certificate from the city engineer setting forth the number of cubic yards of cutting and filling made by each owner in the grading and proportions performed by each owner and certifying that the work is done to establish the width and grade of the street or to the centerline of the street and may file the certificate with the city engineer. The engineer shall record the certificate in a properly indexed book kept for that purpose in the engineer's office.

(2) (a) If the council or commission orders the grading of the street or any portion of the street on which any grading, certified as provided in subsection (1), has been done, the bids and contracts must express the price by the cubic yard for cutting and filling in grading. The owner and the owner's successors in interest are entitled to credit on the assessment upon the owner's lots and lands fronting on the street for the grading of the street to the amount of the cubic yards of cutting and filling set forth in the owner's certificate, at the prices named in the contract for the cutting and filling or, if the grade has been altered, only for so much of the certified work as would be required for grading to the altered grade. The owner is not entitled to credit in excess of the assessments for grading upon the lots and lands owned by the owner and proportionately assessed for the whole of the grading.

(b) The city clerk shall include in the assessment, for the whole of the grading upon the same grade, the number of cubic yards of cutting and filling set forth in all certificates recorded in the clerk's office, or for the whole of the grading to the altered grade, and so much of the certified work that would be required for grading and shall enter corresponding credits, deducting the credits as payments upon the amounts assessed against the lots and land owned, respectively, by the certified owners and their successors in interest. However, the clerk may not include any grading quantities or credit any sums in excess of the proportionate assessments for the whole of the grading that are made upon lots and lands fronting upon the street and belonging to certified owners or their successors in interest.