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Item S2BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY Meeting Date: November 17, 2015 Department: Wastewater Bulk Item: Yes x No Staff Contact Person/Phone #:Wilson 292-4529 AGENDA ITEM WORDING: Approval of revised BOCC policy statement for provision of sewer connections in County funded wastewater systems at County expense. ITEM BACKGROUND: At its June 10, 2015 meeting the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) instructed the County staff that all properties developed after the bid package, or in development as of 30 June 2015, should be charged only their $4,500/EDU System Development Fee (SDF) and have a connection included in the project at no additional cost to the property owner(s). It further directed that any properties developed after that date (30 June 2015) should not be offered an opportunity to prepay their SDF in order to secure a connection at County expense. At the 15 July 2015 its meeting, the BOCC directed staff to revise the policy with regard to properties developed after 30 June 2015 and to ensure the policy was consistent across the systems funded by the County. PREVIOUS RELEVANT BOCC ACTION: Longstanding BOCC policy was to limit the SDFs and connections to developed properties only, in order to limit owners of undeveloped properties from using the SDF payment as an argument in furtherance of a takings claim should they be denied a ROGO allocation. CONTRACT/AGREEMENT CHANGES: N/A __________________________________________________________________________________ STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS: Approval TOTAL COST: Thru 30 June 2015 - $2.51 million; from 1 July 2015 buildout add est $5.6 million INDIRECT COST: BUDGETED: staff time Yes No _X_ DIFFERENTIAL OF LOCAL PREFERENCE: ___________________________________ N/A COST TO COUNTY:SOURCE OF FUNDS: See Above total 8 million Infrastructure sales tax & Mayfield Grants REVENUE PRODUCING:AMOUNT PER MONTHYear ____ Yes No X ', APPROVED BY: County Atty OMB/Purchasing Risk Management ____ DOCUMENTATION: Included Not Required___ DISPOSITION:AGENDA ITEM # Revised 7/09 BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS CM ounty of onroe Mayor Danny L. Kolhage, District 1 Mayor Pro TemHeather Carruthers, District 3 George Neugent, District2 The Florida Keys David Rice, District 4 Sylvia J. Murphy, District 5 Memorandum DATE :3November 2015 TO :BOCC FROM :Kevin G. Wilson SUBJECT: Policy for Undeveloped Properties in the County funded Wastewater Systems Recommended Action: Approval of the attached policyfor application to the Cudjoe Regional Wastewater System and the Big Coppitt, East/West Long Key, andDuck Key systems.. Basis for Recommendation: 1.The attached policy implements direction provided by the BOCC at its 10 June 2015and 15 July 2015meetings. 2.It incorporates providing a connection point for any properties developed after the original design was completed. 3.It creates a consistent policy across County funded wastewater systems. Implications: 1.The additional cost to the project for connection points added between completion of design and June 2015 is $2.5 million. 2.The policy will be applied to the Big Coppitt and Duck Key systems. 3.The projected additional cost to the project for all future development through buildout is $5.6million (assumptions below). Background: FKAA’s design and construction contract did not include connections (either gravity or low pressure) for any properties that were undeveloped when the design basis was completed. For the inner islands (Upper Sugarloaf, Cudjoe, and Summerland Keys), the design package was completed in 2009 and issued for bids in 2012. For the outer islands (Lower Sugarloaf, Ramrod, Little Torch, and Big Pine Keys), the design criteria package and scope were issued in 2012 for the design-build project. Any properties developed after those dates were not included in the project bid package. At its June 10, 2015 meeting the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) instructed the County staff that all properties developed after the bid package, or in development as of 30 June 2015, should be charged only their $4,500/EDU System Development Fee (SDF) and have a connection included in the project at no additional cost to the property owner(s). 1 At its July 15, 2015 meeting, the BOCC discussedthe proposal to charge all properties entering development (permits issued) from 1 July 2015 and forward should be charged the cost of providing the connection from the street to the property. In the case of gravity connections this would include a tap into the main in the street and a connection point at the property line. In the case of a property located in a low pressure service (LPS) area this would include a tap into the force main in the street, and a grinder station on the property with an easement. In both cases, the property owner would be responsible to connect the house (or building) to the connection point (including electrical connections in the case of a LPS system). The Board directed staff to return with a proposed revised policy reflecting the sense of the BOCC that every property should have a connection point provided at County expense since connection to the sewer utility is mandatory. The BOCC had earlier considered a proposal to allow undeveloped properties to “opt in” and found that option to be unacceptable. Costs to Date: Staff has reviewed the number of properties for which connections must be provided between the original design and 30 June 2015 for the CudjoeRegional system. That is 210 gravity area properties (75 and 135, respectively in the inner and outer island service areas) and 70 in the low pressure service areas (15 and 55 respectively in the inner and outer island service areas). The total additional cost to provide these connections is $2.51 million. Future Potential Costs: Staff analyzed the potential for future additional required connection points. Several assumptions were required to determine the potential future cost. They are: 1.A policy adopted for Cudjoe should also applied to other County funded wastewater systems (Big Coppitt, Duck Key, and East & West Long Key). 2.All eight remaining years of ROGO allocations in the Lower Keys and Big Pine/NNK planning areas will be used. 3.Affordable unitswill be split between the planning areas in the same proportion as the market rate units. 4.The remaining ROGO allocations will be distributed among the various County sewer systems in approximately the same proportion as their current EDUs [23% to non-County systems (Stock Island and Baypoint) and 77% to County systems (Cudjoe, Big Coppitt, Duck Key, and Long Key]. 5.The average cost for a connection will be approximately the same as for those properties added before 30 June 2015 -$9,000/EDU (provided by FKAA). 6.Properties in non-County systems are the responsibility of the utility operating them. 2 The total cost for those properties added after design but before 1 July 2015 is $2.1 million. There are a total of 270 connections in this category. The remaining ROGO allocations for the next eight (8) years are: ROGO Allocation for Next 8 Years Planning AreaMarket RateAffordableTotal Upper Keys488275763 Lower Keys456257713 Big Pine & No Name Key6436100 Total1576 The total for the combined Lower Keys and BPK/NNK planning areas is 813 new permits. The weighted average cost for a new connection is $9,000/EDU in today’sdollarsbased on the connections prior to 30 June 2015 (FKAA data). Since 77% of the new permits will be issued in the County sewer service areas, the expected future cost is 813 new connections X 77% in County service areas X $9,000/ EDU = $5.6 million 3 Proposed Policy Statement for Inclusion of Connectionsat County Expense for Newly Developed Properties in the Centralized Wastewater Systems Funded by the County Proposed Policy: When any property located within the Cudjoe Regional Centralized Wastewater System service area, Big Coppitt wastewater service area, Duck Key/Conch Key service area, or the East/West Long Key service areasis issued a building permit, the FKAA will provide a connection from that property to the central wastewater collection system and will bill the County for the provision of that connection point. That connection point will be either a gravity connection point at the property line or a grinder station on the subject property. If the property owner opts to provide his own grinder station to avoid providing an easement, the FKAA will provide a force main tap and stubout to the property line and the property owner will be responsible for the remainder of the connection. In all cases, the property will be charged a system development fee (SDF) at permit issuance. All such property owners are provided the option to pay the SDF in full at permit issuance or have the SDF paid through special assessment as long as a special assessment tax roll remains in effect for the particular area in which the property is located.