Issaquah committee reviews updated connection fees; administration proposes phasing water increases over 10 years

The Issaquah Mobility and Infrastructure Committee on June 17 reviewed updated general facility charges (GFCs) — one-time connection fees charged to new development — and heard the administration recommend applying cost-based charges for sewer and stormwater while phasing water increases over a 10‑year period.

Consultant Sergei Tarasov and Public Works Director Emily Moon told the committee the GFCs are intended to allocate the cost of existing and future capacity to new customers and must be tied to system assets under state law. "These charges have to be based on the cost of the system, which implies that they have to be tied to the asset infrastructure," Tarasov said.

The recommendation matters because GFCs are paid at permit/connection and shift some capital costs from ongoing rates to growth. Tarasov cited RCW 35.92.025 as the governing statute allowing Washington cities to impose such fees and limiting the use of GFC revenues to infrastructure and debt service.

In the presentation, Tarasov gave a breakdown of the calculations used to update the fees. For sewer, he reported a net existing cost basis of about $35 million, with roughly $8.6 million of eligible future projects; the consultant used a residential customer equivalency (RCE) denominator of about 17,253…