FRONT PAGE

Proponents of sewers to submit petition

By Meg Olson

Terry Ritchie, a proponent of a sewer system to serve the Point’s west side, gave water district commissioners advance warning that they could expect property owners to officially request the district initiate a utility local improvement district (ULID) to fund the construction of the system.

“Next month the petition should be done,” Ritchie told water district commissioners at their August 14 regular meeting.

The petition is being circulated among property owners west of Tyee Drive and including larger holdings such as the golf course, Pier Point and the marina. If signed by the owners of at least 51 percent of the properties in the area the petition will compel the district, officially a sewer district as well, to pass a resolution committing to building the sewer system.

In a letter distributed with the petition at the August 12 meeting and signed by the Point Roberts Westside Sewer Committee proponents claim that they already have sufficient property owners signed up to submit a sufficient petition. A different mailing sent to property owners in the area reiterated that proponents had enough property owners committed to submit a sufficient petition, and also included the text of state legislation, effective next year – that will require more stringent monitoring and inspection of septic systems.

“Once you’ve been petitioned and the petition is found sufficient you’re legally bound to serve,” said district manager Dan Bourks. “We are a sewer district. We just need to clarify the steps that would be taken along the way.”

Administrative steps include repeated publication of the resolution indicating commissioners intend to form the ULID, notification of property owners and public hearings. On the engineering side the district’s comprehensive plan will need to be updated with specific plans for the proposed system and associated costs, including what portion of those would be borne by property tax assessments on properties in the area. Public hearings on the tax assessments would also need to be scheduled, and a period set aside for property owners to petition against inclusion in the ULID.

The information distributed with the petition predicts the sewer will cost $2-3 million and will be paid for through a 20-year revenue bond. “Large properties owners would pay the most,” it states, and predicts an average home would pay $15,000 to $20,000 over 20 years for their sewer connection, and a monthly bill of approximately $40 to $50 per month per home.

“Do these people have any idea how much this is really and truly going to cost?” asked commissioner Sue Johnson. “You put these figures down and you wait and see. It’s bound to balloon.” The petition says the figures are based on “research on what similar sewer systems cost in other small communities.”

Other district commissioners were concerned that the petition’s timing, in the middle of an unwieldy process to obtain and distribute more water connections, would push further out an end to the current moratorium on new water connections.

“All the figures we’ve been working on for the water comprehensive plan are without a sewer,” said Madeleine Anderson. “If this adversely affects what we talked about regarding storage with our three million tank it could change everything,” said commissioner Renee Coe.

The 2001 Point Roberts Subarea Plan predicts different buildout densities with or without a public sewer system. Without sewers the plan estimates just over 1,000 dwelling units on the Point, but with sewers that number rises to 4,200. While by state law, available sewer capacity can not be used to challenge county zoning laws, current zoning allows higher densities in the transitional zone if public sewer is available and the developer clusters units. In addition with public sewer the assumption is smaller lots, which cannot today accommodate a septic system, would become buildable.

Bourks said the proposed sewer would not substantially change the numbers now being used to predict future connections to the water system. “The zoning in that area is pretty set,” he said. He added that by the time the sewer came on line the Point would need a new water comprehensive plan. ”This comprehensive plan is for the next six-year planning period and I’m not sure this would be done in that period,” he said. However, he agreed with Coe that district lawyers and engineers needed to have the information about the sewer proposal soon as they draft comprehensive plan changes that are needed before the ban on water connections can be lifted.