A. The owner or agent of any property connected to the Municipal water or wastewater system shall pay a water connection fee for the value of water service and a wastewater connection fee for the value of wastewater service. Connection fees shall be paid to the City on or before the issuance of a building permit, except as provided in subsection 15.08.020E of this Code. The basis for the connection fee for those persons or entities connecting to the Municipal water and wastewater systems is to charge the value of the system capacity that the new user will utilize at that point in time. The value of the system is determined each year by updating the original construction cost of each major capital improvement to the system to determine the cost to replace that improvement in that particular year. This is accomplished by determining the annual average engineering news record construction costs index ("ENR (CCI)") in the year that the improvements were made and the year that the connection fee is being determined. The ENR (CCI) for the year calculated is divided by the ENR (CCI) for the year in which the improvements were made. The value is then multiplied by the original cost for the improvements. The value obtained is the estimated cost to replace the improvements at the time the connection fee is calculated ("gross system value"). The gross system value to replace the system must be adjusted by subtracting the remaining bond principal to be retired and the unfunded depreciation to obtain the "net system value". The remaining bond principal to be paid for bond retirement is determined from the bond retirement schedule each year. The remaining bond interest is not subtracted from gross system value.
B. The following is the equation for determining the net system value of the water and wastewater systems:
Net system value = gross system value - remaining bond principal - unfunded depreciation.
C. All three-fourths inch (3/4") water services shall be treated as one City standard base connection. The base connection fee, as determined for a standard three-fourths inch (3/4") residential connection, is then determined by dividing the net system value by the design capacity of the system component expressed in City standard three-fourths inch (3/4") residential connections. All other size connections shall pay a connection fee based upon the size of the water service using the multiplication factors set forth in subsection D of this section. The size of the water service shall be used as the determination of the wastewater connection fee using the multiplication factors set forth in subsection D of this section.
D. For a water service larger than three-fourths inch (3/4"), the connection fees for both water and wastewater services shall be based upon the size of the water service and shall be based upon the following schedule:
Water Service Size | Multiplication Factor |
1 inch | 1.7 |
11/2 inch | 3.3 |
2 inches | 5.3 |
3 inches | 15 |
4 inches | 25 |
6 inches | 50 |
E. Accessory dwelling units connected through a meter serving the primary residence shall be assessed an additional connection fee at a multiple of 0.24 times the base connection fee for a 3/4" meter. Accessory dwelling units with their own individual meter shall be assessed the full connection fee based on meter size.
F. The design capacity of the system component is determined by the City Engineer based upon City policy and sound engineering practices.
G. If a property is supplied irrigation water through a community irrigation system in lieu of supplying the same water through an individually metered connection that is billed consistent with the provisions of this chapter, then the irrigation connection fee shall be reduced so that the property is not charged twice for the value of the system capacity anticipated to be used.
As an example, the connection fee for a metered four inch (4") irrigation connection is set at twenty five (25) times the price of a standard base connection. If that irrigation connection is serving twenty five (25) properties already served by individual meters, then the value for the capacity of the water system has already been charged and the four inch (4") metered irrigation connection shall only be charged the cost of the meter assembly itself. (Ord. 1281, 2021; Ord. 1237, 2018; Ord. 1188, 2015; Ord. 1094, 2011)