City Council

Agenda Request

Agenda Of:

01-15-08

Agenda Request No:

III A

Initiated By:

Jessie Li, Assistant Utilities Director

Responsible Department:

Utilities

Presented By:

SuEllen Staggs, Director of Utilities

 

Department Head:

SuEllen Staggs

 

 

Additional Department. Head (s):

 

Subject / Proceeding:

second Reading and pass to Second Reading of Ordinance No. 1665 increasing the Utility Connection Fee

Exhibits:

Ordinance No. 1665

Clearances

Approval

Legal:

eugenia cano, assistant City Attorney

Executive Director:

N/A

Purchasing:

N/A

Asst. City Manager:

Karen H. Glynn, P.E.

Budget:

bryan guinn,

budget manager

City Manager:

Allen Bogardfor aB

Budget

Expenditure Required:  $

0

Amount Budgeted/Reallocation:  $

0

Additional Appropriation:  $

0

Recommended Action

Conduct Second Reading of Ordinance No.1665 increasing Utility Connection Fees to $5,670 per equivalent connection.

 

Executive Summary

Section 5 of the City of Sugar Land’s Code of Ordinances includes the collection of connection fees for Utility Districts outside the City but served by the City’s water and wastewater systems. The connection fee is also charged to Districts inside the City when it is specifically included in Development and Utility Agreements. The purpose of connection fees is to pay for the expansion of new water and wastewater systems to accommodate new development so that existing customers will not pay for infrastructure needs caused and used by new customers. The fee is calculated and imposed to pay for the capital costs of providing water and wastewater services to the districts that contract with the City for those services. The fee is established as one fee for all non-developed areas including TxDOT Tract 2, Southern Land Development (Tract 3 and the Imperial Redevelopment) along with Telfair and the Riverstone developments.

 

The first step in determining the fee was to ascertain the number of connections each area will serve. Through the Water and Wastewater Master Plans and additional engineering analysis, the regional infrastructure to serve those connections is determined along with the associated costs. The connection fee is then a simple calculation dividing the cost for the infrastructure by the total equivalent single-family connections or ESFC. The Utility Developer Agreements call for the developer to engineer and construct the necessary improvements except for water plant and wastewater plant expansions, which the City will engineer, construct and finance.

 

Per the development agreements, the City can review and adjust the connection fee periodically to ensure the fees will cover the cost of improvements.  The current connection fee, adopted in 2005, was calculated based on engineering estimates developed in 2005. Over the last few years, significant increases in construction costs have resulted in actual costs being higher than the engineering estimates used in the connection fee calculation. Therefore, a connection fee revision is recommended to reflect the construction cost increases.

 

The proposed revision was workshopped with City Council on November 6, 2007.  After the Council workshop, staff reviewed the data with the developers.  Telfair had recently bid several projects in which actual costs were less than the engineers’ estimates in the connection fee calculation, mostly due to a reduction in scope. Staff updated the fee calculation spreadsheet estimates to reflect the actual bids which resulted in a decrease in the fee presented during the Council workshop (presented as $6,022; reduced to $5,670.)

 

The following table shows the proposed connection fee increase:

 

Category

Current Fee

Proposed Fee

Water Production and Storage

$875

$1,247

Water Distribution and Wastewater Collection

$2,100

$2,334

Wastewater Treatment

$1,335

$2,089

Total Connection Fee

$4,310

$5,670

 

Staff recommends City Council enact Ordinance No. 1665 increasing Utility Connection Fees to $5,670 per equivalent connection.

 

Exhibits

 

ORDINANCE NO. 1665

 

AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SUGAR LAND, TEXAS, AMENDING SECTION 5-249 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES BY AMENDING THE SINGLE-FAMILY CONNECTION CHARGE FOR DISTRICTS SERVED BY THE UTILITY SYSTEM.

 

 

BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL

OF THE CITY OF SUGAR LAND, TEXAS:

 

             

            Section 1.  That Section 5-249(c)(1) of the Code of Ordinances is amended to read as follows:

 

                                 (1)  Amount.  The district must pay the city a connection charge in the following amounts for each equivalent single-family connection made to the district’s water and wastewater system:

 

                                    Water Production and Storage                                      $1,247

            Water Distribution and Wastewater Collection             $2,334

Wastewater Treatment                                                         $2,089

                                    Total Connection Fee                                                               $5,670

 

            Section 2.  That the provisions of this ordinance are severable and the invalidity of any part of this ordinance will not affect the validity of the remainder of the ordinance.

 

            APPROVED on first consideration on _______________________________.

 

 

            ADOPTED upon second consideration on ____________________________.

 

 

 

                                                                        __________________________

                                                                        David G. Wallace, Mayor

 

ATTEST:

 

 

 

____________________________

Glenda Gundermann, City Secretary

 

Reviewed for Legal Compliance: