Petition’s legality questioned

By Meg Olson

Point Roberts water commissioners appear dubious about the legality of a petition for sewer service submitted to them in October, and will be seeking legal advice before acting on it.

“I went through the petition page by page and listed my comments,” said water district commissioner Renee Coe at the November 9 district meeting, adding she has not yet had a response from legal counsel.

Coe said she had concerns the wording of the petition might not meet the requirements of state law, and that it did not present a complete and accurate picture to landowners who were asked to sign on.

“We were presented with a petition saying if the board accepts the petition as it is there’s no financial obligation,” Coe said. “I have a problem with it saying to homeowners it wouldn’t cost them. If the board had accepted the petition it would have started the process and property owners would have had to pay.”

The petition, presented to the board October 10 as signed by 389 property owners on the west side of the Point calls for the board to move forward with the creation of a Utility Local Improvement District (ULID) “for the improvement of certain property by the construction of a community sanitary sewer system.” The petition states that by signing it property owners are not incurring a financial obligation, but it specifies that “financial commitments will come later,” during the process to assess properties for their share of improvements.

Proponents of the Westside Sewer Project project the cost of the sewer system to a new home would be $15,000 to $20,000 based on a $2-3 million project cost.

Coe added that the pending sale of the marina, one of the larger landholdings in the proposed sewer area, “puts a bit of a question mark on it” until the potential new owner had taken a position on the proposed sewer.

“I see two flaws in it and it has to be done to the letter of the law,” district manager Dan Bourks said. Bourks added they would consult with the district attorney and respond to the petitioners before 60 days had elapsed from the submission of the petition.

In other water district business Randy Forsyth, representing Stanton Northwest, suggested that under the continuing moratorium on water connections the district could provide a different water availability form to developers that would allow them to proceed with county permitting despite the unavailability of water connections to complete their projects.

“We are trying to be part of the solution for the water, not the problem,” Forsyth said.

Stanton is proposing a 100-home subdivision west of Lily Point, stalled because of the ongoing moratorium. Without certificates of water availability for every proposed lot in the new subdivision, the county won’t begin the process, which can take up to a year.

Forsyth said that in other counties multiple forms are available to address water availability, some of them conditioned on securing more source – the problem for the Point Roberts Water District, which is now preparing for the random allocation of approximately 140 connections remaining of the limit allowed by the state given current source and storage conditions.

“What we’re submitting to you is a process of issuing certificates conditioned on those very things you’re waiting for,” Forsyth said. “Applications that are waiting for preliminary plats that don’t require a physical building permit could then pull back from the allocation process.”

Without such a system, he warned, if major developers had to participate in the allocation to move their project forward there would be the possibility one or two projects would scoop up all the connections, leaving individuals waiting to build homes stuck.

Forsyth said Whatcom County planning staff was reviewing the forms and district commissioners agreed to do the same.