2020 Georgia Code
Title 36 - Local Government
Chapter 70 - Coordinated and Comprehensive Planning and Service Delivery by Counties and Municipalities
Article 2 - Service Delivery
§ 36-70-24. Criteria for Service Delivery Strategy

In the development of a service delivery strategy, the following criteria shall be met:

1. The strategy shall promote the delivery of local government services in the most efficient, effective, and responsive manner. The strategy shall identify steps which will be taken to remediate or avoid overlapping and unnecessary competition and duplication of service delivery and shall identify the time frame in which such steps shall be taken. When a municipality provides a service at a higher level than the base level of service provided throughout the geographic area of the county by the county, such service shall not be considered a duplication of the county service;
2. 1. The strategy shall provide that water or sewer fees charged to customers located outside the geographic boundaries of a service provider shall not be arbitrarily higher than the fees charged to customers receiving such service which are located within the geographic boundaries of the service provider.
   2. If a governing authority disputes the reasonableness of water and sewer rate differentials imposed within its jurisdiction by another governing authority, that disputing governing authority may hold a public hearing for the purpose of reviewing the rate differential. Following the preparation of a rate study by a qualified engineer, the governing authority may challenge the arbitrary rate differentials on behalf of its residents in a court of competent jurisdiction. Prior to such challenge, the dispute shall be submitted to some form of alternative dispute resolution;
3. 1. The strategy shall ensure that the cost of any service which a county provides primarily for the benefit of the unincorporated area of the county shall be borne by the unincorporated area residents, individuals, and property owners who receive the service. Further, when the county and one or more municipalities jointly fund a county-wide service, the county share of such funding shall be borne by the unincorporated residents, individuals, and property owners that receive the service.
   2. Such funding shall be derived from special service districts created by the county in which property taxes, insurance premium taxes, assessments, or user fees are levied or imposed or through such other mechanism agreed upon by the affected parties which complies with the intent of subparagraph (A) of this paragraph; and
4. 1. Local governments within the same county shall, if necessary, amend their land use plans so that such plans are compatible and nonconflicting, or, as an alternative, they shall adopt a single land use plan for the unincorporated and incorporated areas of the county.
   2. The provision of extraterritorial water and sewer services by any jurisdiction shall be consistent with all applicable land use plans and ordinances.

(Code 1981, §36-70-24, enacted by Ga. L. 1997, p. 1567, § 1; Ga. L. 1999, p. 789, § 1; Ga. L. 2004, p. 69, § 20.)

- Ga. L. 2004, p. 69, § 1, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: "This Act shall be known and may be cited as the 'State and Local Taxation, Financing, and Service Delivery Revision Act of 2004.'"

- For annual survey of zoning and land use law, see 57 Mercer L. Rev. 447 (2005). For annual survey of local government law, see 58 Mercer L. Rev. 267 (2006).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Constitutionality.

- Provisions of former O.C.G.A. §§ 36-70-24(4)(c) and36-36-11, pertaining to the establishment of a dispute resolution process when a bona fide land use dispute arises between a city and county over the use of land which is the subject of annexation, do not violate Ga. Const. 1983, Art. IX, Sec. II, Para. IV. Higdon v. City of Senoia, 273 Ga. 83, 538 S.E.2d 39 (2000)(decided prior to 2004 amendment of O.C.G.A. §§ 36-70-24 and36-36-11).

Trial court erred by finding that the Service Delivery Strategy Act, O.C.G.A. § 36-70-20, specifically O.C.G.A. § 36-70- 25.1(d)(2), was unconstitutional because it did not permit the trial court to direct that the parties enter into a particular agreement and, therefore, did not invade the province of the legislative branch by imposing a tax or allocating the proceeds of that tax. City of Union Point v. Greene County, 303 Ga. 449, 812 S.E.2d 278 (2018), overruled on other grounds by City of College Park v. Clayton County, 830 S.E.2d 179, 306 Ga. 301 (2019).

Cited in Baker v. City of Marietta, 271 Ga. 210, 518 S.E.2d 879 (1999); City of Norcross v. Gwinnett County, 355 Ga. App. 662, 843 S.E.2d 31 (2020).