Discussion:
On March 15, 2022, City Council awarded and authorized the project to construct the Maras Street, 13th Avenue, and Hansen Avenue Utility Extension Project improvements. At this time, all sanitary sewer and watermain work has been completed and the associated costs have been finalized. The street and storm work is scheduled to be completed in late Spring of 2023 and those costs will be finalized at that time.
Currently, there are a couple of properties that have requested to connect to sewer as soon as possible. These properties have been notified by Scott County that their septic systems are failing and must be replaced or connect to city sewer. This is the reason for establishing the sanitary sewer and watermain lateral connection fees prior to the street and storm storm portion of the project being fully completed. Upon final completion of the street and storm portions of the project, a final assessment hearing will be held for those costs.
Pertaining to the sanitary sewer, lateral connection charges have been created for three different service areas as part of this project. The three different service areas are identified on the attached maps, and include properties that will either: 1) connect to the gravity sanitary sewer system, 2) connect to the gravity sanitary sewer system and the Hansen Avenue lift station, or 3) connect to the Hansen Avenue lift station as part of a future project when sanitary sewer is extended to the Boiling Springs and Preserve Trail area to the south.
In accordance with the City's Special Assessment Policy, those benefitting properties that were previously not serviced by city sanitary sewer would pay these proposed lateral connection charges that are established as a result of this project. The lateral sanitary sewer connection charges for the sewer extension are based on actual project costs and developable acreage that the sewer extension will service.
Furthermore, the council directed staff to develop funding and connection options that would provide flexibility to property owners due to the variability of properties, age of septic and well systems, and overall high project costs. A funding and connections memorandum was developed to summarize the options and was reviewed by the council on January 18, 2022, as part of the plan approval and ordering advertisement for bids.
At that council meeting, there was discussion about possibly removing the option prescribing that property owners must connect to water and sewer "at the sale of a property". After further review, staff recommends to keep this requirement as this is common practice (for assessments to be paid off at time of sale) and ensures the new property owner has a compliant system upon purchase and/or has been worked into the purchase consideration, understanding that not all systems would necessarily be at the end of their life cycle in every instance.
The funding and connection options memorandum was previously updated on March 9, 2022 to include the revised lateral connection charge amounts based on bid award, and then again on January 6, 2023 to include the finalized lateral connection charges and the third service area not included in the previous revisions (see attached memorandum).