GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
1993 SESSION

CHAPTER 736
HOUSE BILL 1983

AN ACT TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION TO PAY THE NONBETTERMENT COSTS OF MOVING UTILITIES OWNED BY RURAL WATER SYSTEMS OPERATED BY COUNTIES AS ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS IN CONNECTION WITH HIGHWAY PROJECTS AND TO CLARIFY THAT BOARDS OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MAY ESTABLISH STAGGERED TERMS AND FOUR YEAR TERMS FOR ELECTION OF SANITARY DISTRICT BOARD MEMBERS AT ANY TIME.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  G.S. 136-27.1 reads as rewritten:
"§ 136-27.1.  Relocation of water and sewer lines of municipalities and  nonprofit water or sewer corporations or associations.
The Department of Transportation shall pay the nonbetterment cost for the relocation of water and sewer lines, located within the existing State highway right-of-way, that are necessary to be relocated for a State highway improvement project and that are owned by: (i)	a municipality with a population of 5,500 or less according to the latest decennial census; (ii) a nonprofit water or sewer association or corporation; (iii) any water or sewer system organized pursuant to Chapter 162A of the General Statutes; or (iv) a rural water system operated by county as an enterprise system."
Sec. 1.1.  G.S. 130A-50(b) reads as rewritten:
"(b)	The sanitary district board shall be composed of either three or five members as the county commissioners in their discretion shall determine. The members first appointed shall serve as the governing body of the sanitary district until the next regular election for municipal and special district officers as provided in G.S. 163-279, which occurs more than 90 days after their appointment. At that election, their successors shall be elected. The terms of the members shall be for two years or four years and may be staggered as determined by the county board of commissioners so that some members are elected at each biennial election. The members of the sanitary district board shall be residents of the district. The county board of commissioners shall notify the county board of elections of any decision made under this subsection.
If the sanitary district board consists of three members, the county commissioners may at any time increase the sanitary district board to five members.  The increase shall become effective with respect to any election where the filing period for candidacy opens at least 30 days after approval of the expansion to five members.  The effective date of the expansion is the organizational meeting of the sanitary district board after the election.
The county commissioners may provide for staggering terms of an existing sanitary district board whose members serve two-year terms by providing for some of the members to be elected at the next election to be for four-year terms.  The change shall become effective with respect to any election where the filing period for candidacy opens at least 30 days after approval of the staggering of terms.
The county commissioners may provide for changing a sanitary district board from two-year terms to unstaggered four-year terms.  This may be done either by providing that at the next election, all members shall be elected for four-year terms, or by extending the terms of existing members from two years to four years.  The change shall become effective with respect to any election where the filing period for candidacy opens at least 30 days after approval of the change of length of terms."
Sec. 2.  This act is effective upon ratification.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 12th day of July, 1994.

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Dennis A. Wicker
President of the Senate

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Daniel Blue, Jr.
Speaker of the House of Representatives