12-13-1999 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Request for Council Action continued Page 3 December 13,1999 Policy on Cost Allocation for Sewer Projects forcemain that may provide sewer service to additional properties. Their opinion was that the forcemain costs should be allocated to all property owners who will be using it. A review of the attached map shows ten properties adjacent to the Brown Road forcemain. All of these properties are outside of the MUSA line, and are only eligible for sewer if they meet the criteria for one of the 50 additional sewer units. One of these properties is not eligible to use an additional sewer unit because it is currently undeveloped. Three of the properties have conforming septic systems and are not eligible. The conformity of the septic is unknown on one of the properties. Five properties have nonconforming septic systems with limited possibilities for adequate replacement sites. Three of these would have difficulty even finding one site, and finding a new site plus another replacement site on the other two properties would be difficult. Under the current policies, the other properties in the area are not eligible for sewer. MUSA e.xpansions would be necessary to provide sewer. Most of these properties have newer conforming septic systems with an additional replacement septic site available. Therefore, the sewering of these properties in the near future is extremely unlikely. The Webber Hills project is similar lo the Fox Ridge project. It is also a voluntary project that will be fully assessed. There is a long section of forcemain along South Willow Drive from the neighborhood to the existing sanitarv' sewer facilities. There are three existing homes, along South Willow Drive, outside the MUSA line in this area. Two of the properties have conforming septic systems, and the conformity of the septic system on the third property is unknown. A public hearing was held for the Webber Hills project and the issue of cost allocations was never raised by the property owners. This project contains thirty-seven units in the neighborhood while the Fox Ridge project only contains nine units, so the issue of cost allocations for the sewer in South Willow may not have been an important issue. However, the snme cost allocation method will need to be used for bolt' ’".e Fox Ridge and Webber Hills projects. Cost Allocation Options and Policy There are several options for handling cost allocations for the Fox Ridge project area. One option would be to assess the entire cost of the system, to the Fox Ridge MUSA expansion area. This could be based o i the premise that all of the sewer lines are necessaiy to sewer this neighborhood. This is basicallv the historical city policy, that residents pay for the full cost of sewer to serve their neighborhoods. In the future, if additional properties connect to this sewer they would pay a connection fee to the City. The advantage of this option is that the entire cost could be assessed now and the City would not have any debt service costs. A slightly different variation of the first option would be to contact the eligible property owners along South Brown Road to find out if they are interested in being included in the project. The total project costs could then be evenly split am'^ng all participating property owners. This also provides