Water, sewer fees likely to increase for Lebanon developers

Jul. 5—When the Lebanon City Council convenes for its regularly-scheduled meeting tonight, it will vote on an ordinance to increase costs associated with water and sewer for new developments.

While city officials say that the increased costs are required to pay for new infrastructure to bring water and sewer to the new developments that will become a strain on the system's capacity, some developers have said that the increase is too much too fast.

Lebanon Utilities Director Margaret Washko indicated in a work session on Thursday that she was operating under a directive from Lebanon Mayor Rick Bell to see to it that growth pays for itself.

The increased costs are designed to fund improvements to the city's water and sewer system.

Right now, developers are paying $350 per single family unit for water access. A single family unit is a typical measuring stick for water and is calculated at 350 gallons of water use per day. The new fees would be significantly greater.

Washko anticipates that costs for capital improvements to the two systems will be in excess of $200 million. Improvements to the water system will cost an estimated $68 million, while improvements on the wastewater side of the equation are expected to cost more than $150 million.

Washko indicated in the work session that she is optimistic about being able to build a new wastewater treatment plant for $150 million, but she acknowledged the prospect that with building costs on the rise, that number could increase. She also said that the city's current wastewater treatment plant is nearing the end of its reasonable life expectancy.

Bell mentioned on Thursday that the impact fees to the city's customers had not been increased for more than two decades.

"Nobody could have anticipated the moment that we are in now," Bell said, referring to the exponential growth rates being felt in the city. "In a perfect world, it would have been addressed 20 years ago. With the growth that we are having, we are going to need to upgrade our facilities, so I asked Margaret (Washko) to look into this and really look at our fees and other aspects of new construction."

Wes Binkley, a Lebanon-based real estate agent, sat in on the work session and indicated that he was there on behalf of multiple developers. Binkley expressed concern that the increase was not only a huge jump, but that additional steps in the city's inspection and infrastructure construction process could have bigger impacts on the developers and ultimately their customers than just the increased fee that the city is proposing.

"The question is, moving forward, with inspections and these fees, how are we going to mitigate the process of getting things done quicker," Binkley said. "With the increase of fees, what does this do to the process of getting things through planning, just to the point where we have a product? It costs x dollars to get the product off the ground. What does this mean for efficiency of getting the product done?"

Binkley acknowledged the reality of infrastructure costing money and said that he was not fundamentally opposed to the increase. His concern is primarily with the process.

"The longer we string out these processes, not only is there an increase, we also have time added to the construction and completion process," Binkley said. "If we have a knowledgeable increase per door, we have an increased variable cost to the project."

The council meeting will be held in the town meeting hall of the city's administration building, located at 200 North Castle Heights Ave., at 6 p.m.