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Council Hears Proposed Zoning and Code Changes to Allow Private Sewer and Water Systems
Summary
City staff presented amendments to the Concord Development Ordinance and city code to implement state law that allows private on-site sewer and water systems when public capacity or cost criteria are met; the planning commission recommended parts of the amendment and council members asked for clarity about standards, screening and permitting.
City planning and utilities staff presented proposed text amendments to the Concord Development Ordinance (CDO) and city code to implement statutory changes allowing private on-site water and sewer systems under specified conditions.
Kevin, a city planning staff member, told council the amendments respond to changes in state law (House Bill 628, which staff said has been codified as 168-317) that create exceptions to the municipal requirement to connect to public water and sewer when public capacity is constrained or when the cost to connect exceeds the cost of a private system. Kevin said the code changes would require applicants seeking private systems to attend a pre-application meeting with the Development Review Committee (DRC) so staff can review engineering and avoid unnecessary design work.
Under the proposed language, certain private sewage treatment facilities (for example package plants) would no longer require a special-use permit; instead they would be allowed by right but would go through DRC engineering review. Kevin said the amendments also add plat requirements directing applicants to show private systems on preliminary and final plats and update wording that previously referred to "commercial" uses so the provision clearly applies to residential and nonresidential development.
Jeff, a water-resources/engineering staff member, explained that the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) would still handle technical permitting of package plants and that larger packaged systems for extensive residential development would likely face additional public-review mechanisms such as conditional-district rezonings. Council members pressed staff on appearance, buffering and screening standards: Steve asked whether package plants would require visual screening similar to existing wastewater facilities; Cameron and others sought clarity on which standards, if any, the city could impose. Kevin and Jeff said the new state law contains no specification on appearance and cautioned that adding local standards would carry legal risk if challenged; they recommended using the DRC and conditional-district tools to manage siting and design for larger facilities.
Kevin said the planning commission adopted a statement of reasonableness and consistency for parts of the amendment and that staff would present the formal CDO amendments for council consideration on Thursday. He noted that the ordinance changes also reference existing city sewer-allocation policy: if the council does not allocate sewer capacity to a project, the applicant could pursue a private system as allowed by state law.
No final ordinance vote was recorded in the meeting transcript; staff characterized the presentation as a public hearing and a step toward Thursday’s formal action.
