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Dade City Eyes Water, Sewer Rates

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By LAURA KINSLER

lkinsler@tampatrib.com

Published: January 31, 2009

DADE CITY - The city commission introduced a plan Tuesday to raise water and sewer rates this year and quadruple the cost for new customers to connect to the system.

The new rates will mean city residents likely will see their bills go up a few dollars a month, but customers outside the city will take a bigger hit. They will be charged 25 percent higher rates, meter fees, deposits and connection fees.

"The average customer's bill will go up $5.46 a month," City Manager Billy Poe said. "It could have been a lot worse."

Poe said the city needs to raise its rates and impact fees to pay for improvements to the utility lines and for a future expansion of the wastewater treatment plant. The city won $16 million in grants to help pay for the improvements.

"Otherwise, we'd be talking about a $20 or $30 increase," he said.

The higher impact fees could reduce the number of property owners who connect to the new utility lines - especially in low-income areas such as Tommytown, where Pasco County is installing city utilities in a 60-block area.

The impact fee for a new single-family home would go from $1,185 under the current rate structure to $5,264. Water and sewer connection fees would go from $675 to $812 for new customers outside the city.

Poe said the city would make an exception for Tommytown customers. "We're going to grandfather that project in," he said. "We have an interlocal agreement with the county for Tommytown. We'll end up having to take a loss on that."

George Romagnoli, Pasco County's community development manager, said the county had planned to offer grants that would pay the fees for Tommytown homeowners. Those grants would only be available for homesteaded properties. The majority of properties in Tommytown are not homesteaded, and those owners would be subject to the higher fees.
Romagnoli said he understands the city's plight and its need to raise impact fees. The proposed fees are comparable to the fees charged by Pasco County, he said.

"Dade City is the poorest community in the county; they have the worst budget situation," he said. "I can't really complain about the impact fees."

Margarita Romo, director of Farmworkers Self-Help in Tommytown, said the timing could not be worse for the poverty-stricken neighborhood, which is just outside the city.

"Most of the people in this community don't have that kind of money," she said.

The higher impact fees also will have a significant effect on several residential developments that are on the books or just getting under way near the city. City Attorney Karla Owens said that most developers have known about the fee increases for years.

But Earl Pfeiffer, executive director of Florida Home Partnership, said he had no warning. His nonprofit organization is planning to build 40 homes in Sunset Hills, a community on 21st Street targeting low-income families.

"This is all news to me," Pfeiffer said.

The fact that the 25-acre neighborhood is being developed with city utilities was supposed to be a selling point. The higher fees might price some buyers out of the market.

"It will severely impact the clients we serve," Pfeiffer said. "Every thousand that gets added to the cost of a house makes it that much harder for low-income families to qualify."

Owens said homebuilders and developers can pay their impact fees now, even if they are not planning to build right away, to lock in the lower rates.

"We may have to go ahead and prepay a bunch of taps in advance," Pfeiffer said. "I don't know where we'll come up with the money."

Maronda Homes, which is developing the 113-home Abbey Glen subdivision, already paid its impact fees to lock in the lower rates.

The city commission will hold a public hearing on Feb. 24 before voting on the new rate structure. If approved, the new rates could be in effect by April.

Mayor Scott Black said the city no longer can afford to keep its impact fees artificially low to attract growth. Still, he expects a large turnout for the hearing.

"We're going to have to stand our ground," he said.

Reporter Laura Kinsler can be reached at (813) 779-4617.

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