Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Utilities And Rates topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council considers changing water/sewer rate structure; staff to meet individually with large users
Summary
Staff proposed aligning commercial and residential water rate structures to reduce the burden on residential rates and to support increased water/sewer capital investments; council debated impacts to large multifamily accounts and asked staff to meet individually with affected customers before finalizing changes.
Town staff raised a potential change to the town’s water and sewer rate structure that would move accounts to a single rate model similar to regional practice, with the stated goal of stabilizing revenues while limiting the overall rate increase for residents.
Staff said Fairfax Water’s wholesale volumetric rate is rising ~9%, and the town is also budgeting for increased wholesale and material costs. As a revenue strategy, staff presented an option to realign commercial accounts to the town’s residential rate structure so that large users contribute more consistently; financial modeling shown to the council suggested that the change would lower the overall increase the town would otherwise need to impose and could reduce a projected 4% rate increase to about 1%.
Councilmembers raised concerns that some large accounts listed under commercial rates are multifamily residential properties (for example, condominium complexes that have a single master meter). Several councilmembers said those residents could be disproportionately affected because developers or property owners chose master meters and the residents did not. Councilmember Tom and others asked whether the town could allow multifamily properties to change their designation or otherwise mitigate impacts; staff explained rate differences often stem from meter size and that meter size drives fixed base charges.
The town manager told the council staff would meet individually with the largest affected accounts to explain the proposal before any final vote; staff asked that if four or more council members were comfortable with the outreach, meetings would be scheduled and feedback obtained prior to returning with a final recommendation. No rate ordinance was adopted at the work session.
