Connecting to city water and sewer — Palm Bay, Florida

Yes, where lines are readily available: Palm Bay requires developed properties with city sewer or water at hand to connect within one year of the Utilities Department's written notice (Palm Bay Mandatory Connection).

The rule comes from Ordinance 2023-101, which created a new Chapter 203 of the Palm Bay Code of Ordinances titled Mandatory Connection to Potable Water and Sewer Utilities, adopted on final reading at Regular Council Meeting 2023-28 on November 2, 2023 (Council minutes, November 2, 2023, page 3). The motion passed with Mayor Medina, Deputy Mayor Felix, Councilman Johnson and Councilman Foster all voting yea (Council minutes, page 4).

Sewer and water stand on different legal footing in Palm Bay. At the hearing, city staff explained that Florida law already requires owners to connect to wastewater systems within one year of being notified, while water connection was not mandated by the state; Chapter 203 added the water side. The state rule is section 381.00655, Florida Statutes, under which the owner of a properly functioning septic system must connect to an available public sewer within 365 days after written notification (Section 381.00655). A septic system that needs repair to function in a sanitary manner gets a shorter clock: connection within 90 days after written notice from the Department of Health.

As of October 1, 2023, Palm Bay counted about 1,066 developed parcels with sewer available but not connected and 2,344 with water available but not connected, with 289 of them connected to neither (Palm Bay Mandatory Connection).

Two Palm Bay figures for the same group appear on one city page: the parcel count of about 1,066 SANC parcels in the program text and approximately 1,275 homes in the FAQ, so each is attributed here to where it appears. The much larger 32,000 and 12,000 figures describe every septic system and well in Palm Bay, which the city frames as the goal of a multi-year plan, not the current phase.

Rollout is phased. The Mandatory Connection page says that after the ordinance was approved on November 2, 2023 the city would seek connection through a phased approach beginning in the summer of 2024, notifying SANC and WANC owners in writing. At the hearing, staff described the phases as running over four years (Council minutes, page 3) and said only homeowners funded under Phase 1 would be notified at first, not every Palm Bay household (Council minutes, page 4).

Palm Bay prices a standard 80 foot lot at $4,347.98 to connect to city water and $5,770.40 for city sewer, but owners of eligible SANC and WANC properties have the line extension and impact fees waived (Palm Bay Service Availability).

The Palm Bay City Council authorized waivers of utilities-related fees for eligible SANC and WANC properties, covering main line extension charges and utilities impact fees, which the city totals at approximately $5,670.40 for sewer and $3,553 for water per household (Mandatory Connection). The totals match the published components: $2,370.40 plus $3,300.00 is $5,670.40, and $1,504.00 plus $2,049.00 is $3,553.00, arithmetic on the Palm Bay Service Availability figures.

At the November 2023 hearing, staff told council that, with ARPA and state appropriation funding now available, the only cost to the resident would be a $100 deposit, and the only unknown cost was a plumber to connect from the city meter to the home (Council minutes, page 3). After connection, an inside-city Palm Bay home on a 5/8 x 3/4 inch meter pays monthly base charges of $26.23 for sewer and $16.44 for water under the schedule effective October 1, 2026 (Residential Rates and Charges). The city's FAQ sets those against septic upkeep: a tank must be pumped once every 3 to 5 years at the owner's expense, at a typical cost of approximately $250 to $400 per occurrence (Mandatory Connection FAQ).

Owner-occupied Palm Bay homes can spread connection costs over a Connection Payment Agreement of up to five years; every published estimate includes a fixed $10.00 monthly service charge, and the agreement needs an appointment with Customer Care at (321) 952-3420 (Palm Bay Service Availability).

The Palm Bay plans exclude some items: the meter installation and deposit cannot go on a water plan, and the deposit cannot go on a sewer plan. Over five years, the sewer plan comes to $104.51 times 60 months, or $6,270.60. Without the service charge, the $94.51 estimated payment times 60 is $5,670.60, within rounding of the $5,670.40 in line extension and capital charges, and the water estimate works the same way ($59.22 times 60 is $3,553.20 against $3,553.00), so the added cost of a five-year plan in the city's estimates is essentially the $600.00 in service charges (arithmetic on the Service Availability figures). Those plan amounts are the same line extension and capital charges the council waived for eligible SANC and WANC properties.

State law guarantees a shorter installment option for sewer. Under section 381.00655, an owner may spread the amortized connection charges into equal monthly payments lasting no more than 2 years from the first notice that sewer is expected to become available (Section 381.00655); the Palm Bay five-year agreement is longer than that.

On December 1, 2022, the Palm Bay City Council approved $420,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to help eligible low-income households connect to city sewer, and the city later secured $2,100,000 in state appropriations (Palm Bay Mandatory Connection).

The city's ARPA-funded Septic to Sewer Program pages, which now load only as Internet Archive captures from July and October 2025, described a first-eligible, first-served program. Households in low-income census tracts designated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development had priority, and only owner-occupied homes inside Palm Bay city limits with access to city sewer were eligible (Septic to Sewer Program FAQ). The grant was to cover design and engineering, permitting, construction and installation, and impact fees, with the city paying a pre-qualified contractor directly after a satisfactory final inspection, and the FAQ directed questions to arpa@pbfl.org. Its pre-qualification step asked for the household's 2022 tax returns, so current availability should be confirmed with Customer Care.

The archived Palm Bay pre-qualification page set out the order of events: residents of the low-income tract receive a Pre-Qualification Application by mail from the Utilities Department, staff rank applications by greatest need, applicants are interviewed in person, award letters are issued, and the city Procurement Department bids the work to contractors (Septic to Sewer Pre-Qualification).

Beyond ARPA, the Palm Bay Mandatory Connection page reports $2,100,000 in state appropriations secured during the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 legislative session for septic-to-sewer conversions, and says the city will continue to coordinate with the SOIRL program, named for the Indian River Lagoon, on quick connect grant funds as they become available. For SANC households in the current phase, a program representative contacts eligible homeowners, a pre-approved contractor does the work, and the contractor is reimbursed by the identified funding source once the agreements are satisfied (Mandatory Connection).

A Palm Bay switch runs from checking the city's Interactive Map and confirming costs with Utilities Customer Care to a residential application, payment, a Health Department abandonment permit and a city building permit (Palm Bay Service Availability).

The order matters in Palm Bay. The city recommends a licensed septic tank contractor for the abandonment, an environmental health inspector visits at the time the tank is abandoned, and the city recommends a Florida licensed and insured plumber to tie the house into the sewer lateral before the old tank is abandoned, so service is not interrupted. For Chapter 203 questions or to check whether lines reach a given street, the Mandatory Connection page sends owners to Customer Care staff by email at UtilitiesCustomer.Service@palmbayfl.gov or at the annex counter on Malabar Road SE (Mandatory Connection). Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Palm Bay Mandatory Connection and Service Availability pages.