Airway Heights council OKs reducing rates

At the July 2 Airway Heights City Council meeting there was only one resolution to pass on the agenda and it was approved without any discussion.

The resolution authorized a 50 percent reduction in further general facility connection (GFC) amounts for the portion of Highland Village that is being developed by Community Frameworks. The other part of the development is being done by Habitat for Humanity.

In 2016, the city had passed a similar resolution that allowed for a reduction to 85 percent of the full GFC amounts, but Community Frameworks was seeking an additional reduction in order to secure funding for their portion of the development.

They requested a reduction to 50 percent of the total water and sewer GFC’s for their portion. With those numbers, a total estimated 51 units (50 rentals, plus one manager unit) and per unit of water/sewer GFC translates to a further reduction of $186,907.

The council had previously evaluated the request at the June 25 study session and responded verbally to Community Frameworks that they intended to pass the resolution.

Public Works Director Kevin Anderson had asked the council in previous meetings to consider reducing the GFC costs based on anticipated lower water usage per unit. The water and sewer rate resolutions allow for this adjustment to be made on larger meters (above 1-1/2 inch), but not for the sizes that are anticipated on this future land.

He said that the one way to handle this would be to revise a sentence in section 2 of the resolution as follows:

“For meter sizes above 1 1/2, or for city designated affordable housing developments as provided under RCW 36.70A.540, the city reserves the right to rely instead on an engineer’s estimate of flow and demand in order to ensure equitable contribution toward system costs.”

The Highland Village development is being built in hopes of moving people in the accident potential zone (APZ) to affordable housing outside the APZ in support of the Fairchild Air Force Base Protection and Community Empowerment Project.

Grace Pohl can be reached at [email protected].