During the RFP process, interested parties are able to submit an initial bid to take on ownership of parts of the CCN. City officials said they will give priority to neighboring cities that have shown interest in territories within their jurisdictions.
Explained
A certificate of convenience and necessity, or CCN, is the geographical area in which an organization is required to provide water service.
Currently, 40% of Georgetown’s CCN customers live outside the 174-square-mile area of the city and its ETJ, as Georgetown’s CCN spans a total of 400 square miles.
By selling the water territory outside of city limits and the ETJ, the city can reduce risk from outside development, decrease the burden on Georgetown taxpayers, and better account for growing water demand, Georgetown Strategic Project Manager Caroline Stewart said at an Aug. 26 meeting.
The update
Since the city introduced the plan to sell part of its CCN at an Aug. 26 City Council work session, five neighboring cities have expressed interest in purchasing some of the water territory, Stewart said:
- Killeen plans to retain a small, unoccupied portion of territory in the northeast part of the city.
- Salado expressed interest in buying its territory, although it doesn’t have existing infrastructure or customers.
- Florence and Jerrell are both interested in retaining their territory.
- Liberty Hill is considering buying territory in its jurisdiction, but continues to discuss the purchase internally due to the volume of customers in the area.
- The remaining Killeen service area
- The Hoover service area near Florence
- The West service area west of US 183
- The Sun City service area outside the ETJ
Combined, these areas have 8,935 water meters and 208 miles of pipe. Georgetown projects the water demand to reach 50 million gallons of water per day, and the population in these areas to reach 350,000 people by 2070.
How it works
The RFP process for the remaining CCN areas will take place in two phases.
The first phase will open Oct. 1 and close Nov. 14. After the initial review, the top ranked proposals will then continue to the second phase, which will occur from Dec. 1-Jan. 31, when the earliest award could be offered.
There won’t be a minimum price listed on the RFP, instead it will be up to the “competitive marketplace” to determine cost, Stewart said. However, price is only one aspect the city will evaluate potential buyers on.
“We’re not selling this to the highest bidder; we’re selling it to the most qualified bidder,” Mayor Josh Schroeder said.
What’s next
Killeen and Jerrell will likely have the first and most simple transfer, Stewart said. It will take a few months before an official transfer goes before City Council because the city's Geographical Information Services team will work to map the exact areas, she said.
Even after City Council approves the CCN transfer, it may take a year to finalize the transfer with the Public Utility Commission of Texas.
Georgetown voters would also need to authorize the sale through an election, which could happen in May 2026 at the earliest, Stewart said at the Aug. 26 meeting. City officials anticipate the CCN transfer to close by late 2027 to 2029.
“It's not that in the next couple months, these are going to have left our water service territory and we won't be providing services,” District 1 council member Amanda Parr said. “That's not a realistic timeline.”
