Laketown council debates lowering water impact fees and changing well rules

Laketown’s elected officials spent substantial time at their Feb. 23 work session discussing potential changes to the town’s water policies, including reductions to water impact fees, the town’s prohibition on new private wells, and whether the town may require connection to the municipal culinary water system as a condition of building permits.

Mayor and council reviewed guidance from a water attorney, which the minutes summarize as follows: the town may reduce an impact fee immediately but must repeat the public notice process required when adopting a fee; a ban on private wells is a policy the town may revisit; requiring building permit applicants to connect to town culinary water is a commonly used and defensible practice in other Utah municipalities; and although the town can charge for fire-protection services tied to domestic wells, that was not recommended by counsel. The attorney also noted discussion at the state level about a possible future requirement for a 40-year study to bank water rights.

Mayor Brandon Willis reported researching water impact fees in other Utah towns and found a wide range (about $3,000 to $29,900). Council members discussed lowering fees for individual residential parcels (so-called 'one-off' lots). The minutes list proposed reductions for single residential parcels as: ½-acre lots — $9,500 impact fee, $6,400 fee-in-lieu of a water share, $5,000 connection fee (connection fee unchanged); 1-acre lots — $9,500 impact fee, $16,000 fee-in-lieu, $5,000 connection fee (connection fee unchanged). The council clarified that these reductions would not apply to subdivisions.

Council directed the mayor to work with the town attorney (identified in the minutes as Kendell) to prepare ordinance language to: change residential impact fees, set conditions for fee-in-lieu of a water share, require connection to the town culinary water system as a condition of building permits, and replace the current well ban with a hookup requirement. The council discussed timing for public hearings: Planning & Zoning is expected to meet March 25 (advertise ~March 13), and the Town Council’s next meeting is April 1 (advertise ~March 20).

The minutes contain inconsistent references to which individual holds the mayoral title in the header and in the roll call; where the roll call and most of the narrative identify Burdette Weston as the mayor, Brandon Willis is recorded as a council member. This report follows the roll-call naming in attributing statements to the council and mayor. The council entered an executive session at 9:25 p.m. to discuss potential litigation and reconvened at 9:50 p.m.; no formal ordinance was adopted during the work session.