GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

 SESSION 2011

SESSION LAW 2012-55

HOUSE BILL 1207

AN ACT TO ALLOW Granville County, Person County, the City of creedmoor, the town of butner, and the town of stem TO COLLECT DELINQUENT STORMWATER UTILITY FEES IN the SAME MANNER AS DELINQUENT PERSONAL AND REAL PROPERTY TAXES.

Whereas, water quality standards mandated by State and federal law are requiring that local governments develop more detailed, advanced, and costly stormwater programs; and

Whereas, effective stormwater management should be provided to protect, to the extent practicable, the citizens from the loss of life and property damage from flooding; and

Whereas, aging stormwater conveyance systems and increasing demand upon those systems from development require that local governments engage in long-term planning; and

Whereas, the construction, operation, and maintenance of stormwater conveyance systems requires long-term planning and stable and adequate funding; and

Whereas, it is often most efficient to bill and collect rents, rates, fees, charges, and penalties for stormwater management programs and structural and natural stormwater and drainage systems in the same manner as property taxes; Now, therefore,

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.(a)  G.S. 153A-277(a1) is amended by adding a new subdivision to read:

"(4) A county may adopt an ordinance providing that any fee imposed under this subsection may be billed with property taxes, may be payable in the same manner as property taxes, and, in the case of nonpayment, may be collected in any manner by which delinquent personal or real property taxes can be collected. If an ordinance states that delinquent fees can be collected in the same manner as delinquent real property taxes, the fees are a lien on the real property described on the bill that includes the fee."

SECTION 1.(b)  G.S. 153A-277(c) reads as rewritten:

"(c)       Except as provided in subsections (a1) and (d) of this section and G.S. 153A-293, rents Rents, rates, fees, charges, and penalties for enterprisory services shall be legal obligations of the person contracting for them, and are shall in no case be a lien upon the property or premises served, served and, except as provided in subsection (d) of this section, are legal obligations of the person contracting for them, provided that no contract shall be necessary in the case of structural and natural stormwater and drainage systems."

SECTION 1.(c)  This section applies only to the Counties of Granville and Person.

SECTION 2.  Section 4 of S.L. 2005-441, as amended by S.L. 2011-109, reads as rewritten:

"SECTION 4.  This act is effective when it becomes law and applies to stream-clearing activities commenced on or after that date. Section 3 of this act applies only to the Cities of Creedmoor, Durham and Winston-Salem, the Towns of Butner, Garner, Kernersville, Knightdale, Morrisville, Stem, Wendell, and Zebulon, and the Village of Clemmons."

SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 21^st day of June, 2012.

                                                                    s/  Walter H. Dalton

                                                                         President of the Senate

                                                                    s/  Thom Tillis

                                                                         Speaker of the House of Representatives