Mooresville staff recommend temporary development moratorium in South Iredell service area while pump station is upgraded

Mooresville town staff told the board April 6 they intend to seek an ordinance imposing a limited development moratorium for properties served by the South Iredell pump station until the town upgrades capacity.

Public Services staff said the moratorium would affect a small, mapped area of southern Iredell County where growth in neighboring Troutman has begun to route flow through Mooresville’s South Iredell pump station and stressed the restriction targets only that pump station’s service area.

“The conservative amount of time is 35 months,” the presenter said, summarizing schedule assumptions for design and construction. Staff said the town has issued a design-build RFQ (statements of qualifications due April 13) to accelerate work by overlapping design and construction where possible.

Staff said Troutman is advancing its own force-main work and that, if Troutman finishes its planned force main before Mooresville’s upgrades are complete, Mooresville would lift its moratorium earlier. “If Trautman gets done before us, we will most definitely, pull our moratorium at that point in time,” staff told the board.

Commissioners pressed for budget timing and a guaranteed maximum price. Staff said the town hopes to receive a GMP from the selected design-build team in 2027 and offered a current construction estimate of about $11.5 million for necessary improvements.

Staff described typical statutory exemptions that would still apply under a moratorium, including existing building permits, approved special-use permits, site-specific vesting plans and projects with substantial prior expenditures. The presentation noted Mooresville is pursuing the design-build route to shave 4–6 months from a conventional schedule.

Next steps: staff will evaluate submitted SOQs, select a design-build team, and return to the board with contract and project ordinance requests once scope and pricing are available. The board was reminded that the moratorium is narrowly targeted to the South Iredell pump station area rather than townwide.