Despite my best efforts, I can find no one in town who wants to see their monthly utility bill double from $200 a month to $400 a month in order to incentivize 3,000 more households to relocate to our community, but that is exactly the direction that the city is taking.
City leadership has abandoned two basic principles that have successfully managed growth here for the past 30 years: (1) the best way to address affordability is to keep utility rates as low as possible and (2) developers must pay their own way without subsidies from current residents.
In order to advance their wildly unpopular and frankly destructive approach to community building, the city reaches decisions in private and announces them in public with the explanation that they are required, when often they simply are not (or there are viable alternatives).
The latest example is the state nutrient removal mandate for the next city sewer plant state permit. The draft sewer plan endorsed by the city last year omits the cost of this upgrade from their $95 million budget, thereby hiding the fact that if we just work with the current plant, only a “reasonable” rate increase is required, but if the plant is expanded as the city intends, it appears that a dramatic and very expensive full plant upgrade will be necessary.
Apparently the draft sewer plant permit, with nitrogen removal conditions, has already been agreed upon by city leadership without any public outreach and engagement, with cost implications (once again) to follow.
The state Ecology rules provide for an optional local public hearing on the draft sewer plant permit, and some of us will be requesting just that, if for no other reason than to secure some engagement on issues that directly affect us all.
