Purpose
The North Carolina General Assembly passed House Bill 436 in July 2017, amending Chapter 162A of the General Statutes by adding “Article 8, System Development Fees.” This amendment was enacted as “An Act to Provide for Uniform Authority to Implement System Development Fees for Public Water and Sewer Systems in North Carolina and to clarify the Applicable Statute of Limitations” which requires compliance with designated calculation methodology.
Through House Bill 436 (HB 436), the General Assembly of North Carolina established a uniform approach and associated methodology required for local governmental units to calculate and implement System Development Fees (SDF) for public water and sewer systems. The General Assembly further modified the requirements through S.L. 2023-55. Lincoln County implemented SDFs in July 2018.
What are System Development Fees?
System Development Fees are defined as a charge imposed on each new customer or development that generally offsets the incremental cost of replacing existing and/or constructing new capital assets to provide capacity that will continue to meet the demands placed on the system by each new customer or development. Since water system capacity must, without exception, exceed customer demands, the major infrastructure components providing this capacity, such as water treatment plants, reservoirs, wells, pump stations, etc., must be planned and constructed well in advance and in large enough increments to keep pace with anticipated demand on the available system capacity.
More Information
Lincoln County retained Raftelis to perform the mandatory five-year evaluation of its system development fees effective July 1, 2023 to conform with HB436. Raftelis is qualified and has the expertise and experience to determine system development fees. Raftelis has prepared a report of their findings which may be downloaded below.
Raftelis has presented the System Development Fee Study Findings to the Board of County Commissioners on March 21st at the Budget Workshop. A public hearing will be held at the regularly scheduled Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday, June 2nd at 6:30 p.m. at the Lincoln County Administration building located at 353 N. Generals Blvd Lincolnton, NC. Prior to that, the community has 45 days to review and provide comments for consideration of possible modifications or revisions. Those comments can be made using the online form below.
System Development Fee Report
Public Comment Form