New Braunfels Utilities (NBU) Tap & Impact Fees (2026)

In New Braunfels, water and wastewater service comes from New Braunfels Utilities (NBU), the city-owned utility that also sells electricity. A new single-family home with the standard 5/8-inch meter, on a lot whose final plat was recorded after January 31, 2023, pays about $26,218 in official NBU charges. That is a $19,448 water impact fee, a $6,244 wastewater impact fee, a $401 meter install fee and a $125 customer service inspection fee. The biggest caveat is the plat recording date. NBU locks the impact fee on the date the final plat was recorded, so a house in a subdivision platted before February 2023 can owe $14,452 less, and in older subdivisions the gap is larger still. For how this compares nationally, see our guide to the cost to connect to city water.

New Braunfels tap and connection charges at a glance

The table lists every New Braunfels row in our database, each linked to the NBU document it comes from. The impact fees appear once for each plat-date schedule (E, D, C, B and A-2), and a home pays only one of them. Schedule E is the current schedule and covers new plats. NBU quotes impact fees per meter: a 5/8″ x 3/4″ meter is 1.0 living unit equivalent (LUE), and a 1-inch meter is 2.5 LUE, so it pays 2.5 times as much. The meter install and inspection fees come from a separate connection-fee sheet. Refundable deposits are kept out of the typical total. Most rows are flagged for review because NBU’s current schedules date from early 2023, although NBU still posts them as current.

What a new New Braunfels house pays: worked example

Assumptions: a detached house served by NBU for both water and wastewater, the standard 5/8″ x 3/4″ domestic meter (the size NBU’s residential new-home packet quotes), no irrigation meter, and the owner paying impact fees when the meter is purchased. The impact fees come from NBU’s Maximum Impact Fees schedules, effective February 1, 2023. The meter and inspection fees come from the Water and Wastewater Connection Fees, effective March 1, 2023.

NBU charges for one home with a 5/8-inch meter, by the date the lot’s final plat was recorded.

The $526 is the $401 meter install fee plus the $125 customer service inspection. The inspection is a state-required check (by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) of every new domestic water meter. The date boundaries follow NBU’s Impact Fee Policy (the individual schedule sheets word a few of them slightly differently), and there is one exception. Plats approved before May 5, 2016 and recorded before November 1, 2016 pay Schedule B rates. Schedule E also covers plats recorded before June 20, 1987 and land developed without a plat.

Adjustments:

• 1-inch meter. On a Schedule E lot the impact fees are $48,620 for water and $15,610 for wastewater, because a 1-inch meter counts as 2.5 LUE. The install fee is $545, so the total with inspection is $64,900.
• Irrigation system. NBU requires a separate water meter for any irrigation system. Where the irrigation meter tees off the service, the connection sheet adds a tee-off charge of $89 (5/8-inch) or $104 (1-inch) to the install fee. We did not find a published statement of whether the second meter also carries its own impact fee, so ask NBU’s New Construction team for a quote.
• 3/4-inch meter. NBU’s LUE table counts a 3/4-inch meter as 1.5 LUE, but neither the Schedule E sheet nor the connection-fee sheet lists a 3/4-inch price. NBU quotes larger meters on request.
• Opening the account. Refundable deposits for a newly built home are $60 for water and $100 for wastewater. Half is due at application and the rest comes on the first bill. NBU also adds a $45 administrative fee to the first bill after the permanent meters are set.

What New Braunfels’s fees don’t cover

NBU sets the meter, but the customer supplies and installs the meter box, and everything on the private side is a contractor’s price:

• Water service line from the meter to the house. National estimate $30–$150 per foot installed, including trenching, typically about $50. See water service line cost.
• Sewer lateral from the house to the public main. National estimate $50–$250 per foot, typically about $100. See sewer lateral cost.
• Rock. Where a trench hits rock, excavation costs a multiple of normal soil (national estimate 2.5×–7×). See utility trenching cost.
• Plumbing and building permits from the City of New Braunfels, which are separate from NBU fees. National estimate for a plumbing permit is $100–$1,300.
• Electric service. NBU does not publish a flat connection fee for a new home. Its Electrical Connection Policy prices line extensions per foot and quotes designs individually, and the new-home packet asks for a quote for a standard 200-amp single-phase meter.

National figures are estimates from our benchmark set, not New Braunfels quotes. To combine NBU’s official fees with your own line lengths:

How and when New Braunfels fees are paid

• Impact fees are fixed at plat, paid at connection. Under Section 2.05 of NBU’s Impact Fee Policy, the fee is assessed when the final plat is recorded. It is collected when you apply to buy the water meter or wastewater connection, or at building permit if the owner chooses. No tap or connection is made until the fees are paid.
• Collected at the maximum. NBU’s policy allows it to collect less than the maximum fee the City adopts. NBU’s impact-fee page says it currently assesses the maximum allowable fees, and for Schedule E (new plats) the collected rate in the policy equals the maximum. One older period differs: for Schedule C plats the policy’s maximum wastewater fee is $4,081.48, but the collected rate, and the figure on the Schedule C sheet, is $3,251.
• Expired applications. If a meter application or building permit expires and you file again, NBU recalculates the fee under the schedules then in effect and credits what you already paid.
• Getting service. The county must assign an address before NBU accepts the application. You submit the residential new-home agreement to New Construction, and a technician quotes the fees and deposit. An optional $190 expedite fee is available subject to staff approval.
• Service area. Check NBU’s separate water and wastewater service-area maps before relying on these figures.

Upcoming changes in New Braunfels

• 2026 impact fee update. NBU is updating its impact fees with the city’s nine-member Water and Wastewater Impact Fee Advisory Committee. NBU lists the steps as land-use assumptions, a capital improvements plan, fee calculations, committee review, a public hearing, and consideration by the NBU board and City Council. The committee first met on July 23, 2026, and NBU’s meeting calendar lists another meeting on September 29, 2026. No new amounts or effective date had been published when we checked. Under NBU’s current policy, the rate for a development cannot be raised once it has been assessed at plat recording, so a new schedule would be expected to apply mainly to later plats. Confirm this with NBU once a new schedule is adopted.
• Stale documents. The impact fee schedules (February 1, 2023) and the connection fees (March 1, 2023) are older than FY2024. They are the schedules NBU posts as current in September 2026, but check the meter install and inspection fees with NBU before closing a budget.

How New Braunfels compares

For a lot platted after January 2023, New Braunfels costs more to connect than any of the four nearby cities we cover. The figures below come from our other city pages:

• San Antonio (SAWS): $7,343 to $11,528 in impact fees for a 5/8-inch meter, depending on elevation zone and sewer area.
• Austin Water: about $8,119 for a 5/8-inch meter on a lot platted after October 1, 2023, including meter, tap and inspection fees.
• Kyle: $20,470 plus actual costs for a 5/8-inch meter on land platted after August 27, 2025.
• Georgetown: about $24,494 in water and wastewater charges for a 3/4-inch meter assessed from August 31, 2026.

NBU’s Schedule E total of $26,218 is above all four, and the water impact fee alone ($19,448) is larger than San Antonio’s highest combined figure. Older plats reverse the picture: a Schedule B lot in New Braunfels pays $4,407.40, less than any of the four current schedules above.

New Braunfels tap fee FAQ

Related: Texas utility connection costs by city · tap fee vs. impact fee · water tap fees · sewer tap fees · cost to run power to a property · utility connection cost calculator

Sources for New Braunfels figures

• Impact Fees and Service Charges, New Braunfels Utilities (checked Sep 25, 2026)
• Maximum Impact Fees Schedule E, effective Feb 1, 2023 (PDF), NBU (checked Sep 25, 2026)
• Maximum Impact Fees Schedule D (PDF), Schedule C (PDF), Schedule B (PDF) and Schedule A-2 (PDF), NBU (checked Sep 25, 2026)
• Water and Wastewater Connection Fees, effective Mar 1, 2023 (PDF), NBU (checked Sep 25, 2026)
• Impact Fee Policy, revised Dec 8, 2022, effective Feb 1, 2023 (PDF), NBU (checked Sep 25, 2026)
• Service Conditions Policy, revision Oct 1, 2023 (PDF), NBU (checked Sep 25, 2026)
• Residential New Home Construction Service Agreement (PDF), NBU (checked Sep 25, 2026)
• Meeting calendar (Impact Fee Advisory Committee meetings), NBU (checked Sep 25, 2026)
• New Electrical Connection, NBU (checked Sep 25, 2026)