North Aurora committee reviews higher water connection fees, proposes 15,000-gallon study threshold

Staff presented a proposal to revise North Aurora's water connection fee schedule and the threshold for large-user impact studies at the village committee meeting on Feb. 17, 2025. Staff said fees have not been updated in more than 10 years and recommended moving from a meter-size basis to a population-equivalent (PE) calculation and raising the study trigger from 5,000 to 15,000 gallons per day.

The plan is intended to capture the up-front infrastructure costs created by high-water users, not routine system maintenance covered by monthly water rates. "Our fees haven't been updated for more than 10 years," Staff member Steve said, describing a year-and-a-half master study by engineering firm EEI that reviewed wells, treatment plants, towers and the village's aquifer. He added, "The cost of the study was almost $300,000." Staff also noted the village recently bid a new storage tower and used those bid amounts in the formula.

The PE approach converts anticipated daily water use into an equivalent number of people (EEI used 100 gallons per person per day). Staff described the model: take a business's estimated daily gallons, divide by 100 to get PE, then multiply by a per-PE cost derived from system capital needs. The…