Sisters updates development fees, water rates
The city of Sisters’ system development charges and water and sewer rates are all undergoing slight adjustments, officials said Wednesday evening.
As of July 1, residents will see about a 2 percent increase on their monthly water bill. According to City Manager Brant Kucera, these adjustments have been a long time coming.
Kucera said the city wants to make sure the system development charges (SDCs) reflect the current cost of doing business. Sisters spent the last six months doing a study of the fees.
The SDC increase for a new single-family home will be around $100. The charges are divided between water, sewer, transportation and parks.
The water and sewer portions are the parts that are going up. A current SDC charge for a new single-family home is about $8,700, so the increase will bring it to $8,800.
That will only affect new construction, as SDC charges allow a new home to hook up to the city’s system.
Kucera said Sisters has some of the lowest SDC charges in Oregon.
The very small change in the water and sewer SDC “was really good news for us and it also changes the methodology where it’s meter-based vs. fixture-based,” Kucera said. “The size meter that you buy when you build a house is how you calculate those charges, instead of how many sinks, toilets, or hoses are at the house.”
The new SDC amount takes effect May 10.
A separate resolution will have the city review the charge yearly and decide if it will go up by the rate of inflation, as the city seeks to account for the costs of the construction industry.
A third and final resolution involves an adjustment of what residents pay on a monthly basis for water and sewer.
“The interesting thing is the sewer rate actually went down, so for the first … two years, you’ll either pay less or about the same,” Kucera said. “Those ratings increased because we changed the methodology of how we calculated those base rates. It has actually resulted in a reduction at first.”
The water rate last was adjusted almost 10 years ago and the sewer rate had never been revised since it was first implemented.
