The Cottonwood City Council unanimously voted May 16 in favor of moving forward on setting new capacity fees for water and wastewater on the property of new homes.
The council’s decision started the 60-day process that culminates with a public hearing that will be held on Tuesday, July 17, at 6 p.m., followed by a final vote. The decision to increase capacity fees comes after the town eliminated impact fees on its water and wastewater services several years ago, finding that state regulations and reporting requirements had been too onerous. Capacity fees differ from impact fees in that impact fees for connecting new housing to the water and wastewater systems could be used by the city to fund other unrelated projects. Capacity fees are designed to only cover the extra cost on the system of new housing.
Under the new capacity fee system, construction of new houses would require a fee of $1,124 to be paid per expected resident to hook up a new house to a water main system and $4,502 per expected resident to hook up a new house to the sewer system.
According to Pat Walker of Pat Walker Consulting and Kevin Burnett of Willdan Group — two consultants brought in by the council to discuss the new capacity fees — this price for water connection is on the low end compared to similar communities in Arizona, whereas the sewer capacity fees are close to the median.
“Every community is unique,” Walker said at the May 16 council meeting. “Every community has different levels of service they provide.” Walker said that prices for these fees often vary based on variables beyond a community’s control — the age of the system, depth of the wells, differences in elevation in the covered area and other environmental factors.
Fees for freshwater will pay for expansions in the capacity of the system as new customers are added. With the city having recently built an extensive expansion to its wastewater services, capacity fees will pay to buy into the already-built wastewater infrastructure.
Deputy City Manager Rudy Rodriguez said he believes that the city fees will allow the city to pay for the expanded costs to the system from new construction, and that they are still low enough not to discourage from the building of new homes.
“We talked to a couple of our developers that were in a meeting about this, and they believe it’s fair enough. It’s $56,000,” Rodriguez said. “They understand that if they’re not building the infrastructure, they should pay for the capacity that’s being used so that we have revenues that will be able to build more into the future. They understand that.
“You go down to the Phoenix area, some of those places are paying upwards of 13, 14, 15 grand or more in impact fees and that’s not hurting their construction,” Rodriguez continued. “If you’re going to spend $200,000 on a home, is $5,000 not going to make you build a home, especially when you’re tied to a sewer system and water system as opposed to a septic tank?”
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551, or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
