Union County Water will charge builders a minimum $2,000 to review a residential subdivision's first site plan starting Oct. 1, up from $100 plus $20 per lot — the utility's first fee update in more than a decade, according to Union County. The increase lands as Waxhaw absorbs both new growth and a downtown water-main overhaul already underway.
What is changing, and when?
Union County Water's development review fees rise Oct. 1, 2026, under a schedule the Board of Commissioners approved June 16 as part of the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget, according to Union County. For residential projects, the first plan review jumps to the greater of $2,000 or $40 per lot, replacing a flat $100 plus $20-per-lot charge. A new $175 sketch-plan fee applies before that step, and additional reviews beyond the first now cost the greater of $1,000 or $20 per lot, the county said.
Non-residential projects follow a similar structure: a $175 sketch-plan fee, a first review at the greater of $1,500 or $15 per 1,000 square feet — up from $100 plus $10 per 1,000 square feet — and additional reviews at the greater of $750 or $7.50 per 1,000 square feet, according to Union County.
A sketch plan review is a preliminary look at a proposed subdivision layout before detailed engineering drawings are ready; the first full review that follows examines finished construction plans for the water and sewer infrastructure a project will need, based on how the county's fee schedule is structured. Under the new schedule, both steps now carry a flat charge for the first time.
Why is the county raising these fees now?
Union County Water commissioned a cost-of-service study that found the utility's "development review fees, which had not been updated in more than a decade," no longer covered what it costs to process plans, according to the county's announcement of the change. The county said the new structure is meant to make its charges "more comparable to those used by other water and wastewater utilities" in the region.
The fee change arrived inside a broader rate package in the same budget. Water rates rose 7.25% and sewer rates rose 6% for the fiscal year, part of a three-year plan the county said would "help fund a future expansion at the Catawba River Water Supply Project and other master plan projects," Union County said. Commissioners kept the property tax rate flat at 43.42 cents per $100 of assessed value while approving a $664.3 million operating budget on June 16, according to the county.
The fee change is arriving during a period of broader financial pressure tied to growth. Union County's total property valuation jumped roughly 60% in the 2025 reappraisal cycle compared with the prior 2021 assessment, according to The Longleaf Group's review of county records, even as commissioners held the property tax rate flat at 43.42 cents per $100 of value in the new budget.
How does this reach a town like Waxhaw?
Union County Water serves close to 60,000 customer accounts across the county, though its coverage does not extend to every neighborhood — availability depends on location, according to the utility. Waxhaw sits inside that footprint. The utility is in the middle of replacing roughly 8,000 linear feet of cast-iron water mains through downtown Waxhaw, some installed in the 1930s, work that started in September 2025 and is expected to wrap up in October 2026, the Enquirer-Journal reported. Twelve streets in the historic downtown, including West South Main Street and North Broad Street, are part of that project.
That timeline runs alongside the fee change. A builder platting a new subdivision anywhere in the utility's Waxhaw-area service territory will pay the higher review charges starting this fall, the same season the downtown main replacement is due to finish — though Union County has not publicly linked the two projects to each other.
What does this mean for the cost of new homes?
Development review fees are a small slice of what it costs to bring a subdivision to market, but builders typically pass county-level charges through to buyers rather than absorb them. Under the old formula, a 50-lot subdivision's first review would have cost $1,100 — $100 plus $20 per lot. Under the new minimum, that same review costs at least $2,000, an increase of more than 80%.
The fee increase is not the only growth-related cost moving through the county's books this year. The fiscal 2026-2027 budget also directs $20.9 million in capital funding and $5.6 million in additional operating money to Union County Public Schools, on top of $556,000 for land acquisition tied to industrial recruitment, according to the county's summary of the June 16 vote. Union County's public announcements on the fee change did not include comment from area homebuilders or a builders' trade group on how the increase might affect new-home pricing in Waxhaw or elsewhere in the utility's service area.
What other growth costs are moving through the county right now?
The development-review fee increase follows a broader run of growth-related infrastructure spending in Union County. Beyond the schools funding in the new budget, real estate research firm The Longleaf Group, which tracks county and state planning records, reported that Union County Public Schools has budgeted $27.7 million for a new East Union Middle School building scheduled to open for the 2027-28 school year, and that the North Carolina Department of Transportation's widening of NC-16 (Providence Road) between Rea Road and Waxhaw Parkway — a corridor running through Waxhaw's growth area — has right-of-way acquisition set for 2026, with construction beginning in 2030.
None of those projects are funded by the development review fees themselves, which cover only the cost of county staff time spent reviewing site plans. But they show the scale of growth-related spending moving through Union County at the same time the cost of getting a plan reviewed went up for the first time since before 2016.
What should builders and residents watch for next?
Plans submitted before Oct. 1 fall under the old fee schedule; anything submitted after that date is charged under the new one, according to Union County's announcement. The county has not said publicly whether further fee increases are planned once the current three-year water and sewer rate plan concludes.
For homebuyers, the change is unlikely to show up as a line item at closing. Instead, it will filter in gradually through the per-lot costs builders and developers factor into land purchases and new-home pricing across Union County Water's service territory, including growth areas around Waxhaw, N.C..
For a related local news perspective, read Monroe adds 8,000 residents, outpaces Union County growth.
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For more context, read How to build an emergency fund on a tight budget.