HomeMy WebLinkAbout2387 Process for Reservation of Water Service for Property Owners Located within Utilities Outside of City Service AreaORDINANCE NO.
AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING A PROCESS FOR RESERVATION OF
WATER SERVICE BY PROPERTY OWNERS FROM THE CITY WATER
UTILITY FOR AREAS LOCATED WITHIN THE UTILITY'S OUTSIDE OF
CITY SERVICE AREA AND PROHIBITING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF
ADDITIONAL IRRIGATION TAPS IN THAT AREA AND ESTABLISHING
AN EFFECTIVE DATE OF JANUARY 1, 1994.
WHEREAS, the City of Port Townsend provides surplus water through its water
department to areas outside the boundaries of the City; and
WHEREAS, the statutes allow cities to provide only surplus water to areas outside of a
city's jurisdictional boundaries; and
WHEREAS, RCW 58.17 requires that proof of water availability be established prior
to the approval of a preliminary plat, and Jefferson County requires proof of water availability
prior to granting approval of various permit applications; and
WHEREAS, the City of Port Townsend, by contract with the POrt Townsend Paper
Company, has use of only up to five million gallons per day of surface water supply; and
WHEREAS, the City of Port Townsend is defined as an Urban Growth Area under the
State Growth Management Act and, as such, will ultimately require water supplies in excess of
seven million gallons per day; and
WHEREAS, the combined output of City water facilities from both surface and ground
water sources available for areas outside the City in the Tri-Area is presently around 1.3 million
gallons of water per day; and
WHEREAS, it has become apparent that present water demands in the Tri-Area at some
critical times may exceed the currently available 1.3 million gallons per day and periodic
emergency conservation measures have been imposed; and
WHEREAS, the City presently believes that improvements called for in the Capital
Improvement Program to both the surface water and ground water facilities will increase
availability of excess water to a maximum of 1.8 million gallons per day; and
WHEREAS, present growth rates indicate that the likely population in the Tri-Area will
demand more than 1.8 lnillion gallons per day of water within the next five to seven years; and
WHEREAS, requests for water service already exist or can reasonably be anticipated
which could exceed the 1.8 million gallon per day level if all were pursued and fully developed;
and
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WHEREAS, the City has existing contractual obligations with PUD No. 1 Indian Island
Naval Station, Fort Flagler, and other private individuals to provide a substantial, and in some
cases as yet undetermined, amount of water to areas outside the City limits; and
WHEREAS, the City is not likely to have the capability to acquire additional surface
water supply and is limited by contract with the Port Townsend Paper Company with respect to
how much surface water can be routed to the Tri-Area; and
WHEREAS, ground water rights are limited by water rights and developed capacity, and
additional ground water resources are uncertain and may be prohibitively expensive to develop;
and
WHEREAS, outside of City service area water precommitments have previously been
given out with little evaluation as to water availability and capital requirements; and
WHEREAS, there is currently no charge for a water precommitment and the City has
costs entailed in reserving a sufficient water amount for each precommitment; and
WHEREAS, the City must avoid over committing future water services to protect the
ability to provide reliable service to its existing customers and to avoid misleading the public
with respect to the ability of the City to provide such water supply; and
WHEREAS, the City believes it is in the public interest to establish an orderly process
for temporary reservations of water service by the City and to establish a process which will
only commit amounts the City is reliably able to supply and which will protect existing
customers and avoid the speculative reservation of water capacity without regard to an actual
commitment to develop in the near future;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL FOR THE CITY
OF PORT TOWNSEND:
Section 1. That a new Chapter 13.14 is hereby added to the Port Townsend Municipal
Code to read as follows:
WATER SERVICE AND RESERVATION SYSTEM OUTSIDE OF CITY
13.14.010 Purpose. This Chapter is intended to provide an orderly system for
commitments to provide water supply to property owners located within the water utility's
outside of city service area. It is the intention of this Chapter that a system of water reservation
be established which will provide certainty regarding water service to those who are ready to
use it at or near the time they obtain a reservation or commitment for service, from the water
utility while at the same time preserving the ability of the water utility to provide reliable service
to its existing customers. This system is necessary to allow those who have partially developed
properties adjacent to existing water infrastructure to have an opportunity in future years to
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obtain water supply and to avoid all future commitments being reserved for large vacant parcels
at a pace greatly exceeding actual rates of growth and development in the outside of city service
This Chapter is further intended to provide a system for commitments to provide water
supply to be perfected by actually paying all charges under this ordinance and other ordinances
of the city related to connection, establishing service and continuing service at the address
receiving the temporary commitment. Payment of these charges is intended to allow the city to
have the funds in hand necessary to complete major improvements to the water system, such as
providing increased storage capacity, upgrading the sizes of existing main lines and other
system-wide improvements necessary to accommodate growth concurrently with the actual need
for service and to create a disincentive to speculative reservations of water in advance of actual
development of the property and need for the water service. Due to the limited supply of city
water and the fact that water supply would soon be over committed if speculative reservations
of water are allowed to occur and continue in significant numbers, the process established
hereunder also provides for relinquishing of the temporary commitment to provide supply if the
water is not actually beneficially used within a reasonable period of time.
13.14.020 Application for Water Reservation and Preparation of Design Manual. An
application for water reservation shall be provided on forms established by the Director of Public
Works. The Director of Public Works shall require a fee to be charged in the amount
established under Chapter 3.36 to allow processing of such applications. Applications shall, at
a minimum, require that a legal description and address of the property to be served be
provided, that the proposed use of the property be identified, that the proposed timing of
development be identified and that a property map identifying the property to be served be
provided at a scale and dimension specified by the Director of Public Works. An application
for a water reservation shall not be accepted unless it can be established that an application for
preliminary plat, final plat, a discretionary land use permit, or a building permit has been filed
and is being pursued concurrently with the application for water reservation. No new taps for
irrigation purposes only shall be granted in the outside of City service area after the effective
date of this Chapter. The Director of Public Works may require that a fully engineered plan to
provide service be prepared by a civil engineer licensed in the State of Washington as part of
the application when, in the Director's judgement, such a plan is necessary to determine the
amount of water which is to be temporarily reserved and/or it is necessary to allow the proposed
water system to be integrated into the existing city water supply system. The Director of Public
Works may establish such other requirements for applications and system design as are
reasonably necessary to determine the amount of water to be reserved or to insure proper design
of the system. Such requirements may include the design and implementation of reasonable
water conservation measures.
The application requirements and system design requirements for water systems may be
presented in a development manual prepared by the Public Works Director and adopted by the
City Council. The contents of such a design manual are hereby adopted by reference. Copies
of the design manual, when such a manual is adopted, shall be made available to the public at
a reasonable charge at City Hall and at the Department of Public Works.
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13.14.030 Reservations Within Adopted Service Area Only. The Director of Public
Works may only allow reservations of water service within the service area established by the
city through the Coordinated Water System Plan (CWSP) designation process. The City Council
may, however, on an emergency basis, either reduce the service area specified in the CWSP or
halt the reservation of future water supply where failure to do so would result in over-
commitment of the available supply in advance of capital facility construction necessary to
provide the supply, or where the system will be unable to provide a reliable supply of water to
existing customers or those who have already made temporary reservations of water supply. The
emergency modification of the service area or the halting of reservation of water supply shall
be established by Resolution of the City Council consistent with the provisions of this Chapter.
An exception to the above requirement may be granted by the Director of Public Works
under the following circumstances: (I) where the additional connection would result in a
desirable looping of the water main system which would otherwise not occur and (2) where
there has been a prior, legally binding commitment made to provide service by the City.
13.14.040 Reservation Requires .Water Actually Be Available. A water reservation
may only be granted where there will be sufficient water supply actually available and
concurrently available for the commitment being given. Water supply shall be considered
sufficient only when the amount of water actually available is sufficient to reliably meet the
needs of existing customers of the city, the amounts identified in wholesale contracts committed
to by the City and any other valid contracts or commitments of the City regarding water supply
which are in existence at the time the reservation is applied for. A request for water reservation
shall be denied if there is not sufficient water supply available or if there is no specific, funded
capital improvement identified in a capital facilities or capital improvement plan which would
make sufficient water supply available concurrently with the development proposed in the
reservation request. Concurrency shall be defined for purposes of this Ordinance in the same
manner as it is defined in the Washington State Growth Management Act at RCW 36.70A.070
and any City of Port Townsend Ordinances regarding growth management which further refine
the definition of concurrency in the Growth Management Act.
Where requests for reservation of water are being denied because water is no longer
available, a list shall be kept by the Director of Public Works which identifies owners requesting
water reservations or water connections in the order in which such requests are received.
Should additional water become available and the applicant wishes to have the application be
reconsidered, applications shall be considered in the order received on the list kept by the
Director.
Should a reservation be denied by the City, the property owner is then free to approach
the satellite system management agency established under the Coordinated Water System Plan
to seek alternate water service. If water service is provided by an alternate purveyor, the
applicant shall be removed from the City water utility's prioritization list.
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13.14.050 Conditions of Approval Regarding Reservations. The DirectOr of Public
Works shall have the authority to impose conditions of approval regarding the issuance of a
water reservation under this Chapter. Such conditions of approval may include conditions
regarding phasing or timing of development to insure that capital improvements necessary to
provide reliable water supply concurrently with the proposed development to be undertaken are
completed; that the reservation be tied to a specific project as proposed; that the amount of water
reserved be limited; that the water reserved be specifically limited to a certain number of
Equivalent Residential Units as that term is defined in Chapter 13.26 of the Port Townsend
Municipal Code; that certain on or off-site improvements be made by the applicant or property
owner to allow system connections to be properly made; that reasonable and appropriate water
conservation measures be implemented in the development of property to prevent the waste of
water; and that any other reasonably necessary measures be taken to insure that the development
is consistent with sound water use and development policies and practices.
13.14.060 Payment of Certain Fees Required For Issuance of Water Reservation;
Refunds. No water reservation shall be issued or be deemed valid until the following fees,
set forth more fully in Chapter 3.36, are paid:
mo
Water reservation application fee.
Water tap fee for all taps to be developed or reserved.
System Development Charges (SDC) for each equivalent residential unit being
proposed.
All other charges and fees identified in Chapter 3.36 necessary to establish water
service.
After the tap is installed, all monthly charges and user fees shall be payable whether the tap is
in use or not.
The water tap fee, System Development Charges and unexpended service fees other than the
water reservation application fee shall be refunded in full to the applicant if the water reservation
application is denied because the property is outside the city's service area boundaries or because
water is unavailable, unless the applicant opts to stay on a waiting list for availability of water,
in which case, all fees shall be retained. A proportional refund of charges other than the water
reservation fee shall be made where the number of services or Equivalent Residential Units
(ERU) is reduced after payment of an initial fee based on a higher ERU. If the ERU's are
increased, a higher fee shall be assessed for the additional ERU's before water service may be
established or a reservation for the additional ERU's may be granted.
13.14.070 Life of Water Reservation; Extension.
A water reservation shall be perfected when actual installation of the tap or taps involved
is completed. A water reservation shall be valid for a period of one year and shall expire unless
installation of the tap occurs within that period or an extension of the reservation is granted.
Upon payment of a fee established in Chapter 3.36, a water reservation may be extended for a
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single additional one-year period where it is established that permit applications for development
of the property have not been issued due to no fault of the applicant for reasons such as
preparation of an environmental impact statement, additional public processing or requests for
further analysis or information from the permitting agency.
13.14.080 Relinquishment of Water Reservation.
The holder of a water reservation may relinquish the fight to receive the water reserved
prior to installation of the actual taps. If the water reservation is relinquished prior to
installation of the taps, refund of System Development Charges shall be made based upon the
following schedule:
Relinquishment Date
Refund Percentage
Within One Year
Within Two Years
90% of SDC
70% of SDC
13.14.090 Appeals of Administrative Decisions to City Council.
An applicant for a water reservation may appeal any decision of the Public Works
Director to deny or condition a water reservation or deny extension of a water reservation to the
City Council under the procedures set forth below. An appeal of the decision of the Director
shall be filed with the office of the Public Works Director within fourteen days after issuance
of the decision. The appeal shall be made in writing and must set forth the facts that establish
the appellant's fight to appeal and must contain a brief statement identifying the specific
objections and exceptions to the decision being appealed and identifying any specific errors in
the decision and any other information reasonably necessary to make a decision on the appeal.
There is an appeal filing fee in the amount specified in Chapter 3.36 for City Council appeals
of decisions of the Director of Public Works.
The Director of Public Works shall transmit the statement of appeal to the City Council
which shall schedule a hearing on the appeal and cause notice of the hearing to be mailed to the
applicant no later than ten (10) days prior to the date of the heating.
After the hearing, the City Council shall consider the record of decision of the Director,
together with any and all information relied upon by the Director in making the decision. The
City Council shall also consider the testimony given at the hearing and any other written
submissions made at or prior to the appeal hearing. Following the heating, the City Council
shall make its decision either affirming, reversing or modifying the decision of the Director and
the City Council shall enter finding of fact and conclusions regarding its decision.
13.14.100 Limitation on Actions. Any decision, finding, ruling, determination or binding
recommendation of the Director of Public Works or the City Council made pursuant to this
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Chapter shall be final on the date such decision is made in writing and no action to set aside or
modify the same shall be brought in the Superior Court or other tribunal unless the action shall
be filed within thirty (30) days from the date of such decision, finding, ruling, determination or
binding recommendation.
Section 2. Severability. In the event any one or more of the provisions of this Ordinance shall
for any reason be held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect or invalidate any other provision
of this Ordinance, but this Ordinance shall be construed and enforced as if such invalid provision
had not been contained therein; provided, that any provision which shall for any reason be held
by reason of its extent to be invalid shall be deemed to be in effect to the extent permitted by
law.
Section 3. Effective Date. This Ordinance shall become effective on January 1, 1994, after its
passage and publication as required by law.
Read for the first time on 13t, c.4z~0~& ~O~ /79.~, and for the second and third
times and passed by the City Council of the City of Port ¥ownsend at a regular meeting thereof,
held this ~ot~ day of /~(p~/~
, 19 ~Y
M. Clise, Mayor
!pproved as to form:
Attest:
David Grove, Clerk/Treasurer
Dennis McLerran, City Attorney
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