20051457 Ver 1_North Carolina House bill would override Fayetteville's waterservice policy.msg_20120629

Strickland, Bev
From: Massengale, Susan [susan.massengale @ncdenr.gov]
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2012 9:25 AM
To: NCDENR.DENR.DWQ.CLIPS
Subject: North Carolina House bill would override Fayetteville's water service policy
Attachments: Untitled attachment 00005.txt
From the Fayetteville Observer
North Carolina House bill would override Fayetteville's water service policy
By Paul Woolverton
Staff writer
RALEIGH - A bill the N.C. House passed this week would force Fayetteville and other municipalities
throughout the state to provide water and sewer service to property outside their city or town limits.
It would override a new Fayetteville policy that forces some property owners outside Fayetteville to accept
annexation into the city to get these utilities from the Fayetteville Public Works Commission.
The Senate rejected the bill on Thursday evening, and members of the House and Senate are to meet in private
to draft a compromise.
Republican Sen. Wesley Meredith of Fayetteville, a former City Council member, said shortly before 6p.m.
Thursday that he has not decided whether he will support the legislation.
Democratic Sen. Eric Mansfield of Fayetteville said he opposes the legislation, but he left the legislature
Thursday evening to be with his mother in Georgia, who is ill and undergoing surgery. He had no plans to
return before the General Assembly concludes its work for the year on Monday.
Fayetteville officials and other critics of the bill say the proposed law is unfair to city residents.
Backers say it's a way to force the municipalities to be fair to property owners near them.
The legislation says that if a city has a designated "urban growth area" outside its city limit, the city must
provide water and sewer service to any property in that zone just as it would to any property within the city
limit. The landowner would have to pay the cost of installing the water and sewer lines, and then could be
charged double the water and sewer rates charged to people within the city limits.
The city otherwise would have no say over the landowner's plans
"It's another example of taking local control away from local communities, especially communities like ours
that try to grow in some managed and orderly way," said Fayetteville Mayor Tony Chavonne.
Fayetteville has territory outside the city limits designated as its "municipal influence area" that might be
construed to be the "urban growth area" listed in the proposed statute, Chavonne said.
For example, Chavonne said, a developer who wants city water and sewer might want to build a neighborhood
with more homes than the nearby public roads, schools and other infrastructure can support. The city would
require annexation before extending the water and sewer, and tell the developer to build fewer homes.

If this bill becomes law, Chavonne said, the city will lose that leverage to control growth.
After the state rolled back the city's ability to involuntarily annex people's land, the City Council in February
and Public Works Commission this month voted to require annexation in order to connect to the utilities.
Lawmakers who support the legislation said the cities need to provide a level playing field for when extending
their utilities.
"Folks, this provision's about fairness to landowners," said Republican Rep. Tim Moore, a Cleveland County
Republican and chairman of the House Rules Committee, during debate on the legislation on Tuesday. "If you
believe that landowners should have rights and should not be discriminated against, and should be treated fairly
and equally," then lawmakers should support the legislation.
Cities that don't want to follow the proposed law don't have to keep their designated urban growth areas, said
Rep. Paul Stam, a Wake County Republican and the House majority party leader. "The city has to itself
designate it as an urban growth area. And the city can undesignate it," Stam said.
The legislation was further controversial because of news reports that it was advanced to help a developer with
a project in Durham.
Susan Massengale
Public Information Officer
DENR- Division of Water Quality
1617 MSC, Raleigh, NC 27699 -1617
(919) 807 -63599 fax [phone]
Please note: my e -mail address has changed to [e-mail]
E -mail correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the
North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.