Laserfiche WebLink
<br /> e Deputy Director of Public Works Terry Smith had no news to report from the <br /> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He mentioned that a technical <br /> amendment to the Clean Water Act, which would make collector sewers eligible <br /> for State revolving loans, recently passed a significant legislative hurdle. <br /> Mr. Smith said the council directed staff to propose a way to deal with the <br /> fact that residents in the River Road/Santa Clara do not pay system <br /> development charges. He said it would be possible for Lane County to adopt <br /> the City's system development charge ordinance and apply to areas outside of <br /> the city. The charges would be based on the impact the areas have on the <br /> City's road and sewer systems. Mr. Smith also mentioned that Eugene has the <br /> lowest system development charges of any major city in the state. As a <br /> result of recent State legislation, Eugene will have to change its system <br /> development charge practices by January 1, 1991. This probably will result <br /> in a doubling or tripling of the City.s system development charges. <br /> Mr. Smith briefly reviewed information on sewer hookup costs for an average <br /> household, with and without annexation to the city. <br /> Mr. Rutan asked what the City Council's main goals are. Ms. Bascom mentioned <br /> two: to distribute the cost of urban services fairly throughout the urban <br /> area; and to address the groundwater contamination problem being caused by <br /> septic tanks in the River Road/Santa Clara area. Mr. Holmer said another <br /> goal is to achieve a rational boundary for the city by annexing the River <br /> Road area. He said that for the long term, he supports the goal to <br /> distribute urban service costs fairly; however, in the short term, this goal <br /> e may be at odds with the goal to accomplish annexation. On the basis of these <br /> comments, Mr. Rutan said the need to meet sewer hookup deadlines is not <br /> necessarily the sole driving force behind the City Counci1.s discussion of <br /> annexation and sewer issues for the River Road/Santa Clara area. Other <br /> councilors indicated that Mr. Rutan was correct. <br /> Mr. Smith briefly reviewed information about the aggregate sewer cost for the <br /> River Road area: with annexation, the total assessable cost would be about <br /> $30.7 million; without annexation, the cost would be about $35.1 million. <br /> Mr. Smith mentioned two of the factors behind the higher cost without <br /> annexation. First of all, the City has made infrastructure investments which <br /> give it the capacity to serve the River Road area. If sewer services are <br /> extended without annexation to the River Road area, the City would need to <br /> recover the cost of such investments. Second, if annexation of the area <br /> occurs, the City can pledge its full faith and credit behind the bonds to <br /> construct the sewers, thus achieving a lower interest rate than would be <br /> possible if sewers are constructed outside of the city. <br /> Mr. Holmer asked about the possibility of pledging the City's full faith and <br /> credit behind bonds to construct sewers without annexation. Mr. Smith said <br /> that incurring this amount of debt outside of the city limits would have a <br /> negative impact on the City's credit rating. Finance Director Warren Wong <br /> estimated that the impact would be from 75 to 100 basis points on any future <br /> bonding. <br /> - MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 12, 1989 Page 2 <br /> - <br />