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023 <br />payments. Alternatively, the unit may be able to borrow money, pledging the assessment <br />revenue as security, and use the yearly assessment payments to meet its debt service <br />obligations. As a practical matter, critical infrastructure assessments likely are limited to <br />funding public infrastructure projects that benefit new development. They function as an <br />economic development tool. A comparison of the two methods is provided in Table 1 <br />below. <br />Table 1 <br />Traditional Special Assessment Method <br />Newer Special Assessment Method <br />G.S. 153A, Art. 9 <br />G.S. 153A, Art. 9A <br />Limited statutory purposes <br />Expansive statutory purposes <br />Generally no petition requirement (except for <br />Petition requirement for all projects <br />street and sidewalk projects) <br />Amount of assessment must be based on one <br />Assessment method within discretion of <br />or more statutory bases <br />governing board, but must relate to benefit to <br />properties assessed <br />Unit must follow detailed statutory procedures <br />Unit must follow detailed statutory procedures <br />before levying assessments (including at least <br />before levying assessments (including at least <br />2 public hearings) <br />2 public hearings) <br />Unit may borrow money to front costs of <br />Unit may borrow money to front costs of <br />project but may not pledge assessment revenue <br />project and may pledge assessments as security <br />as security for loans <br />for loans <br />Unit must complete public improvement <br />Unit may impose assessments before the <br />projects before assessments may be imposed <br />projects are complete, based on estimated costs <br />Assessments often are paid in up to 10 yearly <br />Assessments may be paid in up to 30 yearly <br />installments <br />installments <br />Authority EXPIRES June 30, 2015 <br />Special Assessment Process <br />In order to levy special assessments, local governments must go through a detailed statutory <br />process. The details of the process vary slightly for the two methods, but the general outline is as <br />follows: <br />1. Unit receives petition <br />2. Unit Determines scope and cost of the project <br />3. Board adopts preliminary assessment resolution <br />4. Unit publishes notice of public hearing on the preliminary assessment resolution <br />Page 3 of 4 <br />