What is System Development Fees

System development fees are one-time charges assessed to new water and/or wastewater customers, or developers or builders, to recover a proportional share of capital costs incurred to provide service availability and capacity for new customers

What is Required by Currituck County  

As a result of the passage of North Carolina General Statute 162A Article 8 (Article 8) signed into law on July 20, 2017 and amended on June 22, 2018, Currituck County hired Raftelis Financial Consultants, Inc. to develop a cost-justified water and wastewater system development fee analysis.

According to the statute, system development fees must be adopted in accordance with the conditions and limitations of Article 8 and must conform to the requirements set forth in the Article.

In addition, the system development fees must also be prepared by a financial professional or licensed professional engineer, qualified by experience and training or education, who, according to the Article, shall:

  • Document in reasonable detail the facts and data used in the analysis and their sufficiency and reliability.
  • Employ generally accepted accounting, engineering, and planning methodologies, including the buy-in, incremental cost or marginal cost, and combined cost approaches for each service, setting forth appropriate analysis to the consideration and selection of an approach appropriate to the circumstances and adapted as necessary to satisfy all requirements of the Article.
  • Document and demonstrate the reliable application of the methodologies to the facts and data, including all reasoning, analysis, and calculations underlying each identifiable component of the system development fee and the aggregate thereof.
  • Identify all assumptions and limiting conditions affecting the analysis and demonstrate that they do not materially undermine the reliability of conclusions reached.
  • Calculate a final system development fee per service unit of new development and include an equivalency or conversion table for use in determining the fees applicable for various categories of demand.

More information on the System Development Fees new law can be found on Kara Millonzi blog.

Timeline

February 4, 2019

Development Fee Analysis Results presented to the Board of Commissioners work session

February 6, 2019

Begin mandatory 45 day citizens comments acceptance period.

March 27, 2019

Last day to accept comments

April 1, 2019

Development Fees findings Board of Commissioners Public Hearing

Citizens Comment

Citizen comment forms must be completed and submitted to the County by Wednesday, March 27, 2019.

Ways to submit comments form:

  • Mail or In-person
    Nick Ingold, Engineer Technician
    153 Courthouse Road, Suite 302
    Currituck, North Carolina   27929
  • Online
  • Email Nick Ingold,  Engineer Technician

For more information contact the County Engineer’s office at 252-232-6048.