Summit County board advances water‑concurrency fee change to public comment

The Summit County Board of Health voted to move a proposal to change water‑concurrency fees into a 30‑day public‑comment period, a step staff said is needed to cover third‑party engineering review costs for western Summit County water systems.

Nathan Brooks, environmental health director, told the board the western Summit County public‑water concurrency program evaluates "paper water" (allocated water rights) against "wet water" (actual supply) and relies on a third‑party engineering firm for technical analysis. He said the current fee — $27.50 for public water systems — has not changed since 2017 and no longer covers program costs, averaging about $10,277 in annual third‑party bills over the last three years.

Brooks proposed increasing the fee for systems that still sell water to $3,300 and creating a $750 fee for exempt or built‑out systems that nevertheless use third‑party services. "So in order to compensate for that, what we're looking at is increasing the water system ... from $27.50 to $3,300," he said.

A board member moved to "approve this as presented" and send the proposal into public comment; another seconded the motion, and the chair announced the motion passed unanimously. Staff said public comment would remain open for 30 calendar days and the board may hold a short special meeting to consider responses, after which the fee schedule would be integrated into the department’s fee schedule if approved.

Nathan told the board that all affected water companies present at the October committee meeting voted in favor of the proposed fees and that staff will evaluate fees again as part of the department’s regular three‑year fee cycle.

The board’s action advances a preliminary fee schedule; public comment and any substantive feedback will be considered before final board approval.