Sanford rethinks growth, weighs annexations, and plans Chatham Park wastewater deal

Sanford’s new growth map and scoring hopes to improve annexation and development decisions. Attorneys at the same Aug. 25 meeting reviewed finalizations for a 25-year wastewater deal with Chatham Park Investors, aiming to boost development and establish Sanford as a regional wastewater hub.

As explained below, the council has approved annexes and developments when they were not favorable ideas.

“Right this minute, anybody can go [develop] anywhere, and our goal is to help them get it done, and that’s not good way to plan,” Assistant City Manager Victor Czar said, who has 37 years of experience.

In Sep. 2025, the community development director, Marshall Downey, advised the council to create a new growth strategy to analyze city services, costs and levels for growth zones. The purpose was to set service thresholds, a scoring system for development requests, define growth boundaries with tiered zones, and update the land use plan. Staff suggested monthly workshops and consulting a third-party advisor to define essential services and set thresholds. The plan was to provide more insight for proposed annexation and development decisions.

The council has worked with Freese & Nichols, a consulting firm, since Downey’s advice developing the analyzation tools, including a tiered map.

Six months into consulting for the council at the Aug. 25, 2026, Czar said, “We [planning department] need to do better about explaining what it means something is a bad idea,” when addressing how the board has not followed staff reports’ advice for not approving proposals, and “next thing we know it all works out,” when proposals are approved.

Urban Planner Alexis Garcia with Freese & Nichols reminded the council that annexing meant consideration for utilities and they had created tools to help them judge whether to approve proposals. She said the city should review and update the map each year.

The list of priorities supplied by Freese & Nichols is not in order of importance, but Garcia emphasized they should focus on school districts when judging annexation approvals. See image of DRAFT below.

Alexis said the council should consider whether proposals might have a negative impact.

Mayor Salmon said they needed to have clear presentations and that an “open line of communication with the county and or the school district does not mean that we control decisions those boards make.”

Downey said the consulting firm had a sufficient base to create the annex map analysis, and decisions will continue to be made on a case-by-case basis.

Czar said the land use plans do not always align with growth annex approvals.

Freese & Nichols are creating the final growth analysis tool and map for the planning staff, the council and the public, and the planning department will provide a thorough staff report for council to weigh decisions.

Czar said approval decisions in Tier 1 on the growth strategy map weigh heavily on fire, water, sewer and buffers. In Tier 2, decisions are weighed on where the county ran water lines over 20 years ago and how difficult and costly it will be to provide sewer.

See image below of the DRAFT. Map legend: white is city limits, green is Tier 1 with fire, water and sewer, and orange is Tier 2 with water and fire service or water and wastewater as considerations. NOTE: The orange tentacles will expand in the final map to be presented at the Sep. 1 meeting when council may vote on accepting the plan as a policy.

When the growth strategy policy is made available with the map, developers will be able to self-evaluate a project idea and decide for themselves when they have a bad idea, eliminating wasted time for both developers and city staff.

Czar presented data on future growth, saying city limits had 5,700 acres and was the most reasonable to develop, and there are 2.7 people per household. He said the numbers do not fully represent growth because much development has already been approved.

Downey emphasized that the ideal margin rates are 60% of residential, 20% community and 20% industry.

WASTEWATER AGREEMENT

Attorneys Mac McCarley and Catherine Clodfelter reviewed the Chatham Park Investors (CPI) wastewater agreement, a year-long endeavor. The agreement clarifies the Pittsboro and Chatham agreements to match Sanford’s role.

Sanford will purchase the clean water treatment plant at $1.9 million, for a $4-million building, with permits and pay $1 million for the extra land for expansion, a water tower and “most importantly, customers,” McCarley said.

Chatham and Pittsboro receive sewer capacity to facilitate increased development, up to 100,000 gallons per day per year.

The cost for Sanford goes into Pittsboro’s rate base.

According to Hexagon’s Nov. 2025 article, rapid growth and inflation costs to repair aging water facilities will continue to cause more large water treatment facilities to merge with smaller facilities.

In 2023, Mayor Salmon said it will be up to Council to set rates and system development fees, which may have to be adjusted, based on growth.

The CPI agreement is a 25-year agreement, and the land transactions is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, according to Clodfelter.

CPI can use more wastewater than agreed in the agreement, in which case Sanford can be free of the agreement sooner, and CPI would be treated as any regular customer.

If Sanford can provide more than 100k per day in a year, it can, but it is not required.

If CPI does not use 80k per day in a year, they lose it. There is no accumulation.

“First come, first serve on needs over 100,000,” McCarley said about CPI perhaps wanting more. He suggested the parties have frequent meetings to negotiate needs.

For drought conditions, the agreement falls under policies already in place with TriRiver Water.

CPI will pay for some of the design cost for the Sanford facility and the town can continue the same rate of payments, of which an estimated $900 is still owed.

Pittsboro’s and CPI’s agreements are either nullified or absorbed into the Sanford agreement.

The agreement is planned for a vote at the next meeting.

McCarley asked the mayor if she wanted a presentation for the next meeting. “It’s mainly for the public’s benefit.”

Salmon did not answer.

Susan Patterson has served as the City Attorney for Sanford, North Carolina, for nearly 30 years, since Sep. 1996. The council celebrated her birthday during the workshop.

The next meeting is Sep. 1 at 5 p.m.

Aug. 26, 2026

Stephanie M. Sellers

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