By Cecilia Chan | East Valley Tribune
After developers squawked over a proposed one-time connection fee to Mesa’s water and wastewater systems, staff put two modifications on the table for council to consider that would help soothe their impact.
Council is expected Nov. 17 to introduce the Capacity Fee Ordinance, which would generate over the next decade $400 million to build the needed infrastructure to accommodate future growth. If adopted Dec. 1, the capacity fee takes effect Jan. 1.
“As we stand today, all of our systems are sized appropriately for our existing customer base,” said Chris Hassert, Water Resources director at the Nov. 6 study session. “So if we weren’t expanding anymore in the city, if we weren’t developing any vacant parcels, we would not have the need to build any new pipelines, expand plants – anything like that.”
The city is proposing that developers pay connection fees for water ranging from $7,719 to $1.4 million, depending on the meter size, which spans from 0.75 to 10 inches. For wastewater, the proposed range was $1,809 to $331,673.
