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Lincoln council approves annual adjustment language for water connection fees, adopts unregulated fee increase
Summary
City council approved an ordinance amendment to allow the city manager to make annual adjustments to source water connection fees and adopted a 13.15% increase for unregulated water connection charges while keeping regulated charges essentially unchanged following a 1.4% decline in the construction cost index.
The City of Lincoln on July 8 approved an amendment to the municipal code that will let the city manager make routine, annual adjustments to source water connection fees and adopted an updated unregulated-connection charge.
City staff presented the item during a public hearing and recommended no change to the regulated connection fee after finding a 1.4% decrease in the San Francisco Construction Cost Index, but recommended a 13.15% increase for unregulated capacity tied to Placer County Water Agency (PCWA) Zone 6 charges. The council adopted the ordinance amendment and the fee change on a unanimous roll call vote.
The change in procedure authorizes the city manager to annually adjust the regulated and unregulated connection fees based on the Engineering News-Record construction index for regulated capacity and PCWA Zone 6 charges for unregulated capacity. Chris Nelson, public works environmental services manager, told council the amendment is intended to “streamline” routine adjustments so the city can implement them by July 1 rather than waiting months for council action.
Council members asked whether the city could reduce the regulated fee because the index decline was small. Nelson said the decrease was nominal and staff recommended holding the regulated fee steady; council members noted they could lower fees if desired and received confirmation from the city attorney that lowering fees is legally permissible.
Staff also alerted the council to a clerical error discovered after the vote: the draft resolution included an older figure for the unregulated connection fee ($19.84) instead of the updated $22.45 in the staff report. The city clerk said the error would be corrected before signing the resolution.
Why it matters: connection fees are buy‑in charges developers or builders pay to access the city’s water system; they fund system capacity projects and are distinct from monthly water rates. The amendment will let routine fee adjustments occur annually without returning to council for each small change, while council retains oversight for major methodology changes.
What was decided: council approved the ordinance amendment and adopted the updated unregulated connection fee on a unanimous roll call (Council members Reedy, Pearl, Eklund and Mayor Andreatta voted yes). The resolution will be corrected for the clerical error before final signature.
Next steps: staff will apply the new administrative adjustment process on the schedule described in the ordinance and will correct the clerical error in the resolution before it is finalized.
