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New housing developments in the Oakboro area will have to pay new fees after action taken by the town’s council at Monday’s meeting.

The board unanimously approved a new fee schedule which was suggested to it by a study the town had conducted by Wooten Engineering.

A public hearing was conducted before Monday’s council meeting, but no one spoke at the hearing.

The new fees will be $1.97 per gallon of water and $6.60 for each sewer gallon, for a total of $8.56 per gallon. The maximum allowable system fee for the residential connection will be $3,080.

In the study, the new fee “takes into account approximately $5.1 million in accumulated depreciation for the existing infrastructure assets of $8.5 million, a net total cost of $3.4 million,” which the town can recuperate through the tap fees.

The tap fees increase with the size of the pipe up to $662,540 for a 12-inch connection.

According to the study, potential residential water customers are expected to increase from 1,098 in 2020 to 1,561 by the year 2027, with eight more commercial and several more institutional customers over the same seven-year period. Sewer customers are expected to increase by similar amounts, with residential customers projected to increase to 1,264 in 2027, up from 827 two years ago.

With the new fees, the town is projected in the study to make a total of $312,437 in water revenues from 2023 to 2027 and $948,024 in sewer revenue over the same period.

According to Town Manager Doug Burgess, revenue from the new tap fees for new housing developments has been earmarked to pay for increased capacity at the West Stanly Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Existing customers will not be charged the new fees; the base rate for current customers will continue to be $50.63 for water, sewer and garbage pickup, based on 2,000 gallons per month minimum.