Council mulling over how to extend sewer lines beyond town boundaries

Throwing away an ace?

The issue of extending water and sewer lines beyond the Crested Butte town boundaries will get some more discussion by the Town Council. An ordinance allowing such extensions came before the council on Monday, August 16 but enough questions were raised that further discussion will be held at the September 7 meeting.

Councilperson Jim Schmidt expressed his discomfort with the idea. Ideally, he indicated he’d like to see sewer lines extended only if the town has significant control of the structure that will use the sewer line.
“This whole idea leaves a bad taste in my mouth,” he said. “It is a departure from where town has been and it bothers me to all of a sudden open it up. What if the next person who gets the Foothills land comes in and expects the town to give them sewer? They’ll do a subdivision with no town control.
“We have two big cards and that’s water and sewer,” Schmidt continued. “And they are both aces but this seems like we are throwing one of our aces away. I don’t want a house just outside of town that is maybe all chrome and concrete and 10,000 square feet and we have to provide sewer service to it. If you do it for one house, does it set a precedent, and does it open it up for whole subdivisions?”
Crested Butte public works director Rodney Due said no precedent would be set in terms of having to service proposed subdivisions. He said the ordinance is very clear that it is for single-family homes only. “Anything more than that would have to go through an annexation process,” he said. “This addresses the ‘201’ plan signed onto by the county and municipalities in the 1990s to deal with the sewer service around their areas. I think this at least opens up negotiations with Gunnison County over the issue.”
Schmidt said he remembered the “201 plan” being implemented so the towns could put conditions on a property for providing water and sewer. “This just provides the use without giving the opportunity for conditions.”
“The conditions are in the ordinance and it moves away from the horse trading aspect,” said town attorney John Belkin in reference to the increased tap fees and monthly costs property owners outside town would have to pay. Property owners outside of town that tapped in would pay 1.5 times the in-town rate for a tap fee and twice the rate for monthly service fees.
“But be clear that once you provide services outside of town, you will be in the business of providing services if they meet the requirements,” Belkin said. “You won’t be able to not do it, provided they meet the requirements of the ordinance.”
Mayor Leah Williams wanted the ordinance to include specific geographical boundaries that were associated with the original 201 agreement. “Shouldn’t the service area be defined in this ordinance?” she asked.
Williams also echoed Due’s arguments that this move protects the nearby environment by allowing safer sewer systems than an ISDS (individual sewage disposal system) that would be built on the properties with county approval. “We need to weigh the benefit of protecting the environment, the Slate River and the wetlands that are nearby,” she said.
“Our intent is to protect the wetlands and keep out ISDSs,” summarized councilperson John Wirsing. “Jim wants to prohibit spaceship houses just outside of town. But the alternative is they end up being out there anyway with an ISDS if we make it too prohibitive for them to tap into our system.”
“I just think this is a big shift at how the town looks at things and we are throwing away our ace. And we only have two,” Schmidt said.
“It is a balancing act,” said Williams. “If the town is too onerous, they won’t come to us anyway. This way at least, we get the tap fees and service charges.’
Town building and zoning director Bob Gillie said some of the staff shared some of Schmidt’s concerns. “This is the compromise we cooked up,” he said. “I think we are 98 percent of the way there.”
Due assured Schmidt he thought this was a good move for the town and not scary at all. He said the sewer plant had plenty of capacity to handle the additional homes that may qualify. Gillie put that number at approximately 30 houses.
Attorney David Leinsdorf, representing homeowners in the McCormack Ranch, said if the town starts imposing too many restrictions, “the McCormack Ranch, for one, will go in another direction.”
“I worry about unintended consequences,” said Williams. “Let’s tighten this up.”
Schmidt suggested including a provision in the ordinance that wouldn’t allow the town to provide services to a house larger than 5,000 square feet. He said the current house being built just north of town was going to end up at about 4,000 square feet.
The council will consider the revised ordinance at the September 7 meeting.