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Boulder staff recommend keeping water budgets for single-family customers, will carry multifamily/CII alternatives into rate study
Summary
Staff proposed keeping water budgets for single-family and metered-irrigation accounts while reducing and simplifying budget sizing; staff recommended exploring multiple alternatives for multifamily and commercial accounts during a broader rate study led by NewGen Strategies and Solutions.
City staff presented proposed water-budget policy recommendations and a multi-phase rate study framework at the Jan. 26 Utilities Advisory Board meeting, urging the board to carry policy direction into a March rate-study update.
Heather Behrens Loza, water conservation program manager, said the staff recommendation is to retain water budgets for single-family residential and metered irrigation accounts but to reduce and simplify how budgets are sized. "We have two primary goals of this policy evaluation: 1 is to simplify the policy so it's going to improve customer experience and make it more sustainable year to year, and 2, to improve water budget effectiveness," Behrens Loza said.
Staff told the board they are not yet proposing specific numerical reductions because sizing decisions can significantly affect customer bills and the eventual rate design. Staff reported survey outreach and workshops that informed the recommendations: roughly 948 single-family respondents and a separate workshop for large water users.
For multifamily residential and commercial, industrial and institutional (CII) accounts, staff recommended carrying three alternatives into the rate study: a meter-size increasing block rate, a simplified set of water budgets tied to meters up to 3 inches with custom budgets for larger meters, and a no-change alternative. Staff explained meter-size approaches are one way to scale charges fairly across a wide range of building types.
Board members asked about equity and assistance, because changing budget sizes would increase the number of customers who exceed their budgets. Staff said assistance that was funded with American Rescue Plan funds has been reduced and that the city is now working with partners and building an in-house assistance program; exact funding amounts for ongoing assistance were not specified at the meeting.
Staff emphasized the rate study is multi-phased: phase 1 is this policy evaluation, phase 2 will dive into structural, financial and customer impacts (expected update in March), and phase 3 will be implementation, which could occur in 2027 or 2028 depending on the complexity of choices.
Board members requested more demographic context for survey responses, seasonal analysis of usage patterns, and clearer estimates of the share of customers who exceed budgets. Staff provided ballpark figures for single-family customers (seasonal peak months see modest exceedance rates) and committed to deeper analysis in the rate study.
