Hilton Head property owners charged $300+ for failing to connect empty lots to sewer
When Hilton Head Island native Murray Christopher and his family opened their tax bills this year, there was a $400 surprise.
Their properties on Christopher Drive near Folly Field had been assessed an extra fee. If they didn’t pay, they’d be delinquent on their taxes.
Even more frustrating, they didn’t know what the fees were for.
“The fee was issued, but it didn’t say what it was for,” Christopher said. “I had to figure out why the fee was going to be applied.”
Christopher eventually discovered it was a “sewer availability fee.” It was a charge for not hooking up to the newly expanded sewer lines that the Hilton Head Public Service District had laid as part of a town-funded project that ended in 2019.
The catch was that the Christopher family’s two properties were undeveloped.
Even if they wanted to, they didn’t have any building to connect to the new sewer lines.
The Hilton Head PSD has long assessed sewer availability fees to vacant properties, which have encouraged property owners inside gated communities to develop their property and connect it to sewer. When the island underwent a massive push to extend sewer to properties outside the gated communities, the accessibility fee came with it to unsuspecting owners with no plans to develop their land.
The availability fees hurt native islanders the most, leaders say, because people with vacant land are making no money on it yet being charged extra fees. Heirs’ property, which is historic land passed down from generation to generation without a written will, is difficult to develop because it doesn’t typically have clear title.
In Christopher’s case, his family has no plans to build on the two properties. Without a building with plumbing, he has no need to connect to the sewer.
“It’s most definitely making it more difficult to pay the property taxes,” he said. “If you’re struggling to pay the taxes, and they tack on another fee with no explanation, that’s not something that I think should be done.”
How did we get here?
Hilton Head PSD commissioners who represent areas populated by native islanders have taken up the sewer availability fee in an attempt to abolish it.
Herbert Ford, who has served on the commission since 2010, said the new expansion of the sewer system has created both opportunities for people living outside gated communities to connect to sewer and created issues for people with plans to keep their vacant land empty.
“This has been going on for a long time. Now that they’ve expanded the sewer system outside the planned unit developments, native islanders with vacant plots of land are being assessed the availability fee,” he said. “How can we charge someone for not connecting to a system when they have nothing to connect it to?”
Pete Nardi, the general manager of the PSD, said some combination of the $300 annual sewer availability fee and the $100 annual water availability fee was assessed to 1,150 properties this year. The fees were designed to bridge the gap between paying for the utility to be extended to an area and the actual amount those who use it pay each year.
“The availability fees were a way of defraying the cost. Otherwise, the people using the system are paying a disproportionate share of the rates,” Nardi said. “The whole philosophy of a fee like this is it diminishes.”
He said fewer property owners have been paying the availability fees in recent years because they’ve chosen to connect to sewer. Revenue from the fees has dropped 30% in the last 10 years.
Managers at South Island PSD, which covers the south end of the island, said the PSD does not assess availability fees. Broad Creek PSD, which covers the middle of the island, did not return a call and email seeking comment.
Now that the north-end Hilton Head Island PSD has extended sewer service to 60 new streets, families like Christopher’s will be forced to pay the fees or face delinquency on their property taxes. If they don’t pay the property taxes in full, their properties can be sent to the delinquent tax sale — one of the most prolific ways in which native islanders and their families lose land in Beaufort County.
“You have to pay the fee in order for your property not to go to tax sale, even if you don’t know what it’s for,” Christopher said. “Transparency is a buzzword today, and that’s not transparent.”
What’s next?
The Hilton Head Public Service District Board of Commissioners will vote on whether to abolish the fee at its April 28 meeting as part of the annual budget process.
Nardi, the general manager, said he will recommend sunsetting the fee and stopping its assessment.
A majority of the seven-person board will need to approve the change for the availability fees to end.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREIf you're affected by this fee
If your property on Hilton Head Island is being assessed the availability fee and you’d like to discuss how it’s impacting you, please contact kkokal@islandpacket.com
Hilton Head PSD and The Deep Well Project have resources for property owners who are assessed the fee and are unable to pay. Information is available on the PSD website.
This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 4:30 AM.
