2030 Plan - Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority

way to recover part or all of the costs of additional system capacity constructed for their
use.
Impact fees can also affect the competitiveness of a community’s economic development
efforts, as the magnitude of impact fees can influence where development occurs in
certain regions. Therefore, a comparison of GSWSA’s water and wastewater impact fees
to similar fees assessed to new customers of other local utilities provides a benchmark
when considering the impact of these capital charges on economic development and
affordable housing in the region.
Table 4 provides a comparison of the residential water and wastewater impact fees
assessed by GSWSA with nine other utilities in the Low Country region.
Table 4
Impact Fee Comparison with Other Local Utilities
(a) Local communities are sorted from highest to lowest based on the
combined total for water and wastewater impact fees.
As demonstrated in Table 4, the current GSWSA impact fees are significantly below the
local comparison group average for combined water and wastewater impact fees.
Additionally, based on historical impact fee information, the annualized adjustments to
GSWSA’s impact fees over the past 10 to 25 years have been similar to the adjustments
to the user rates and charges, typically falling below the national inflation rate. As a
result, the past and current impact fees provide GSWSA with a competitive position
within the Low Country region in terms of economic development and affordable
housing.
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