One of the reasons that the City Council says that it has voted to keep the sewer plant in its current location is because of the high cost of moving it. They say that the burden could be put onto locals because sewer rates would need to be increased.
Instead of using this threat of increased rates to scare locals into voting to keep the sewer plant in its current location, why doesn’t the city look to other areas for increasing revenue? In towns like Fort Collins and Boulder, they charge higher water and sewer plant investment fees than in Durango. This means that the builders and developers pay a higher rate to hook new construction up to the system.
I did some research and here is a look at what other Colorado communities charge:
In Durango, for a single-family home, the cost to hook up to water is $5,733 and for sewer it is $2,023, totalling $7,756.
In Fort Collins, a water tap is $7,000 and sewer connection is $6,550, reaching the total of $13,550.
In Boulder, a water tap is a whopping $11,467 and sewer connection is $4,473, reaching a total of $15,940.
The city of Durango issued 62 building permits for single-family homes in 2013. If Durango’s water and sewer plant investment fees were the same as Boulder’s, we would have collected an additional $507,408 in that one year alone. That number doesn’t even include commercial or multi-family building permits.
It looks to me like we have been overlooking a serious source of revenue. Instead of putting the burden on locals who live and work in Durango, we should be pushing some of that burden onto developers and builders. Vote no on 2B.
Stephanie Fleming
Durango
