County neighborhoods consider paying for their own street lights
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 30, 2014 1:46 PM
How quickly street lights can be switched back on in the de-annexed area north of Goldsboro appears to outweigh any concern residents might have about cost.
At a meeting Wednesday night, nearly two dozen people asked Wayne County commissioners if they could start collecting signatures immediately to get the process started.
Commissioners scheduled the meeting at Salem Church to explain how the county could use special street light districts to levy an assessment to pay for the lights -- but only if area residents agree to it.
Commissioners also passed out blank petitions for property owners to sign. Gathering the signatures is the responsibility of residents in the areas affected.
Under state law, commissioners can create special districts, similar to fire districts, and levy an assessment to pay for a service -- in this case, street lighting. Commissioners voted unanimously on Oct. 21 to create six such districts
But before the tax can be levied to pay for the lights at least 67 percent of the property owners in each district must agree to the arrangement.
The districts and the annual costs are:
* No. 1, Buck Run, $88
* No. 2, Morgan Trace, $47.16
* No. 3, a combination of three small subdivisions, Pine View, Tarklin and Perkins Road, $59.52
* No. 4, Falling Brook, $48
* No. 5, Ashby Hills, $49
* No. 6 Salem Church/Buck Swamp, $93.84.
The sixth district is not an actual subdivision. It is an area where lots have been cut out that were annexed, then de-annexed. Commissioners created it because of the two major roads in the area.
The assessment is not a property tax. It is based on the number of lots and the number of street lights in a district.
People who own more than one lot in a district must pay the assessment for each lot.
The total annual cost for each district is actually 110 percent of the cost, Wood said. The additional money would be used to build a separate reserve for each district and as a financial buffer for people who do not pay.
When the developers built the subdivisions they had an agreement with Duke Energy to provide street lights, County Manager George Wood said. But when the area was annexed into the city, state law required Goldsboro to take over street lighting, thereby voiding the original contract.
That cost was paid through property taxes.
When the area was de-annexed the city no longer had a legal obligation to provide the street lights. Once that happened Duke Energy did not had an entity, such as a government or homeowners association, to contract with to provide the service.
Creating the special district provides an entity Duke Energy could contract with, Wood said. Duke would bill the county, which would use the revenues from the special assessment to pay the bill.
The special assessments will be included on the tax bills for only the property owners in those districts that approve the assessment. The assessment would be paid by every property owner in a district, whether they voted for it or not, Wood said.
Wood was asked if there is a means to undo the assessment.
There is no provision under state law to do so, he said. But Wood said that he and County Attorney Borden Parker believe all it would require is another petition signed by at least 67 percent of the people in the district -- the same number it took to create the assessment.