GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
1995 SESSION

CHAPTER 655
SENATE BILL 580

AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF ALBEMARLE CONCERNING ASSESSMENTS FOR STREET IMPROVEMENTS.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  Section 5.3 of the Charter of the City of Albemarle, being Chapter 259 of the 1979 Session Laws, reads as rewritten:
"Section 5.3.  Alternative Method of Assessing the Cost of Installation of Street Improvements;  Authority to Waive Street Assessments.
(a)	In addition and as an alternative to the method provided in G.S. 160A-218 for assessing the costs of installing street improvements described in G.S. 160A-216(1) and (2), the City Council, in lieu of assessing the total cost of a particular project as provided in G.S. 160A-218, may annually between the first days of January and July of each year, determine the average cost of installing street improvements and, on the basis of such determination, may make assessments of such average cost during the following fiscal year beginning July 1.  The average cost of such installation shall exclude labor cost but shall include the cost of materials of street improvements completed during the preceding calendar year.  The City Council also may include the anticipated increase in materials costs based upon the average of such increases during the preceding five calendar years.  The assessment of the average cost of such improvements shall not be made until after the particular assessment project has been completed.  The purpose of this act is to distribute more equitably the cost of the installation of street improvements throughout the City; to permit a property owner to know in advance what the cost of installation of street assessments benefiting his property will be; and to permit the most expeditious assessments of cost against property after completion of the installation of such street improvements.  The actual cost of acquisition of rights-of-way also may be assessed as a part of the cost of an individual project.  If the right-of-way costs have not been determined and assessed with the assessment of the average installation costs at the time of the completion of the project, such costs may be assessed separately when they are determined.
(b)	The City Council may waive the collection of street assessments owed to the City by Stanly County, the Stanly County Board of Education, and the Albemarle City School Administrative Unit."
Sec. 2.  This act is effective upon ratification.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 21st day of June, 1996.

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Dennis A. Wicker
President of the Senate

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Harold J. Brubaker
Speaker of the House of Representatives