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Local business owner urges council to ease ERU moratorium or allow alternative wastewater treatment for job-creating industrial development
Summary
Joseph Gambino, an industrial developer and property owner in Sandy, asked council to modify the sewer-connection moratorium so ERUs can transfer across use types or to approve alternative treatment systems to enable his project to proceed. Staff said both paths could be researched but saw no council consensus to change the moratorium tonight.
Joseph Gambino, a local business owner and applicant for development near Fred Meyer in Sandy, used public comment time to ask the council to pursue two possible solutions to the city’s sewer-connection moratorium: (1) modify moratorium rules to permit ERU (equivalent residential unit) transfers across use types, or (2) enable alternative wastewater-treatment systems so commercial and industrial projects could obtain needed capacity.
Gambino said he purchased about two acres of industrial-zoned property and could create up to 40 living-wage jobs but lacks the necessary sewer ERUs; the city’s 451 currently allocated ERUs are, he said, all held for residential use and not available for industrial conversion. "So what I would like to propose…is that somebody get onto some type of vote or process…to revise the moratorium before it is extended to allow traded ERUs to change type," Gambino said.
Staff responded that two paths exist: modify the moratorium to allow ERU transfers across uses (which would require direction now to meet state notice deadlines) or pursue alternative treatment systems as a broader policy; Kelly and Tyler said they could pursue both tracks if council directs staff. Council members expressed concern about making ERUs a marketable commodity, the equity implications for homeowners on septic, and the legal/regulatory complications; several suggested moving the matter to the Economic Development Committee for more study. There was no council consensus tonight to modify the moratorium.
Next steps: staff will include alternative-treatment-system options on the Oct. 21 agenda and the Economic Development Committee may examine ERU allocation and holding policies; council indicated it could modify the moratorium at a later date through normal procedures.
