Council authorizes impact‑fee study for water and wastewater; Adeco to prepare analysis under state code

The Navasota City Council on July 14 authorized the city manager to enter a professional services agreement with Adeco Consulting Engineers to carry out a water and wastewater impact‑fee study, a step staff said is intended to ensure new development bears its fair share of system capacity costs. Staff told the council the study will produce recommended capital projects to serve forecasted growth, calculate fees per equivalent single‑family connection, and document the methodology required by Texas Water Code Chapter 395. Adeco’s representative explained that impact fees are typically calculated by dividing the capital investment attributable to new development by the number of equivalent single‑family connections projected over the study horizon and that commercial or industrial users are converted to equivalent connections based on water consumption or meter size. City staff said the study does not itself adopt impact fees; it creates the legally required analytical record and recommendations that the city would later choose to adopt through a separate process that includes public hearings. Staff also noted the study was budgeted and will be funded from the CIP; council included the standard legal review proviso for the final agreement. Council acknowledged concerns about whether impact fees might affect development costs but staff and the consultant said the fees are a common tool to avoid shifting growth costs to existing residents and can be structured with offsets if developers provide capacity directly.