Fairhope residents and developers building outside of Fairhope city limits will now have to annex the property into the city to connect to the Fairhope water system.

In August 2023, during a period of drought and strain on the Fairhope water system, an ordinance was brought before the Fairhope City Council that would require property outside of the city limits to be annexed into the city for connection. It was discussed during council work and regular sessions and was tabled indefinitely in September 2023 due to a lack of answers to some of the council's questions.

One of the main questions the council had was regarding properties that were not contiguous or touching property within the city limits. The updated ordinance clearly states the ordinance pertains to contiguous properties.
Fairhope Mayor Sherry Sullivan spoke to the council on the ordinance during the Feb. 19 work session meeting.

"One thing about this ordinance is we had an extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) for a while. Again that had to do with planning and we have our utilities which are separate," Sullivan explained. "When SB 107 or Act 297 was put in place, it really created a situation where they're not in our ETJ anymore. They don't follow our planning rules and regulations and they might choose to build in Baldwin County."

Properties built in the unzone areas of Baldwin County are built to different codes, rules and regulations than structures built within the city limits.

"It kind of brought to light the fact that we are providing a utility but they're building in the county and not in the city," Sullivan said. "This is an effort to pull those folks into our city, make sure they're following our rules and regulations, make sure our community continues to grow the way we want it to grow and using the water connection is one of those ways that we can do that."

In addition to new property annexed into the city limits, this ordinance will subsequently bring additional funding dollars to resident services such as fire, police, parks and recreation and transportation through impact fees.

Every new home, residential development and commercial property built within the Fairhope city limits are required to pay an impact fee. The fees range from $5,830 for a single-family residence to $5,488 for a non-residential commercial building.

"This is common practice in other municipalities throughout the state and probably throughout the country and something Fairhope has never done," Sullivan said during the initial ordinance discussions in 2023. "People building outside the city limits, to be honest, has always been a way for them to bypass impact fees the things we use for police, fire parks and those type of things."

Residents outside of the city limits with current connections do not need to worry. Article three of the ordinance reads in part:

"The city will continue to serve customers with existing water connections located outside the Fairhope corporate limits. Additionally, the city will honor existing commitments to provide water service to property located outside the corporate limits if it has an active building permit with the city or received preliminary or final plat approval with a prior written acknowledgment of the city's ability to provide water service to the property."

The council unanimously approved the ordinance Feb. 26