The Reno City Council on Jan. 14 voted to include sewer main installation with the planned Rivermount Neighborhood Street Rehabilitation Project and to authorize staff to draft an area-specific connection fee ordinance.

Katie Harrison, engineering manager for the Public Works Department, told the council the estimated cost to install the sewer main in the Rivermount project area is about $4.4 million. Staff secured a nearly $3.1 million NDP grant to offset the cost, which leaves an approximate $1.3 million funding gap for the 105 affected parcels. Harrison said the city’s recommended approach is to front the construction cost and recover it with an area-specific connection fee when individual homeowners choose to connect.

Harrison described two per-property figures: a calculated area-specific connection fee of about $25,172 per parcel (this includes the base connection fee plus area-specific construction costs) and an estimated private-side cost for homeowners to extend the lateral from the property line to the house of roughly $15,000–$30,000, which would bring total homeowner cost after connection to an estimated $41,000–$56,000 depending on site conditions. Staff also said they will continue to pursue additional grants and loan programs to ease the homeowner burden.

The council voted to approve installation of the sewer main with the street project and to authorize staff to return with a fee ordinance; the motion carried unanimously. Staff said Phase 1 will be advertised for bid at the end of the month and that the connection-fee ordinance and final rate study will be brought back to council in the coming months.

Council members and staff noted community outreach: staff surveyed property owners and revised the funding strategy after hearing residents did not support an upfront special assessment district that would have required payment immediately. "In the revised approach, the City would front the cost of the sewer installation and would be repaid through an area specific connection fee," Harrison said. She told the council that a follow-up meeting in December had produced broad resident support for the revised approach.