FARMVILLE — Town council has approved a 75 percent reduction in water and sewer tap fees for an 18-month trial period to boost economic growth.

Rather than $4,000 each per water and sewer tap, the fee has been reduced to $1,000 for each.

Town officials are hoping the reduction will help entice economic expansion.

Any loss of revenue in the short-term, they hope, will be more than recouped through long-term expansion of the tax base.

Initially proposed only for businesses, and then just in the Town’s enterprise zone, town council decided the best approach was town-wide and for commercial and residential development alike.

The reduced price has taken immediate effect and is intended for actual, active projects, not speculative investment.

Recommended by council’s community development and marketing committee, the goal was developing incentives to “attract businesses to locate, or projects that were kind of teetering to maybe entice them to go ahead and do the project,” Town Manager Gerald Spates told town council during its February monthly meeting.

One of the main incentives employed by localities across the state, Spates continued, is adjusting water and sewer rates to make it attractive for a business to come in.

Spates offered the example of someone wanting to construct 80 apartments. The water and sewer tap fees would each be $320,000, under the Town’s then-current fee structures.

“It doesn’t make it very attractive for somebody to invest that much money into a project,” Spates said of the $4,000 fees. “…I think it (the reduction) would really spur some development in some of these areas. I think it will pay for itself, in the tax base.”

Town council member, and finance committee chairman, Jamie Davis inquired if the $1,000 fee would cover the cost incurred by the Town when installing the taps.

“Oh, yeah, it covers your cost,” Spates said, adding that a commercial project must also pay the cost to put in the tap, in addition to the tap fee, itself. “You get your $2,000, plus whatever it costs to put them in.”

Community development and marketing committee chair, Sally Thompson, supported the town-wide reduction. “I think it’s worth trying this for 18 months,” she said.

The stipulation that the reduction would apply to “an actual project that begins” was made by Spates. “I would hate to see somebody come in and buy 50 water and sewer taps and sit on them until the end of that 18 months…The value of a water and sewer tap right now is $8,000…I think you need to stipulate that it be an active project and not just somebody speculating.”

Town Attorney Andrea G. Erard and Spates will work together to specify precisely what the Town will be offering, what the stipulations and requirements are.

“The details do matter,” Erard told town council.

Because one or more projects are in the offing, she advised council members that they could authorize the reduced water and sewer taps with immediate effect.

“And you could ask that the details and the project completion details be ironed out by the town manager. So that would be another option,” Erard said.

“In which case the motion would be,” she continued, “to authorize the reduction in the water and sewer taps for the period of the next 18 months, town-wide, under such conditions, and with the stipulations as generally discussed by council, to be reduced to writing by the town manager.”

Without missing a beat, Thompson said, “I so move.”

The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.