CARLSBORG — In order to lift a state moratorium on growth in the Carlsborg Urban Growth Area, Clallam County is staying the course on its plans to build a sewer and wastewater treatment plant west of Sequim.
That’s not to say that the $15 million project off Carlsborg Road is set in stone.
“We’re trying to figure out all the moving parts here and the GMA [Growth Management Act] requirements,” said Commissioner Steve Tharinger, whose district includes the eastern third of Clallam County.
The county is working hand-in-hand with the Clallam County Public Utility District on the multifaceted project. PUD would operate the sewer if it were built in 2012 and opened in 2013.
Local utility district
PUD commissioners adopted a resolution of intent to form a conditional local utility district, or LUD, for the sewer in March.
“That was all really contingent on a majority of land owners accepting a financing package for the sewer system,” said Tom Martin, PUD water and wastewater systems assistant superintendent.
“It’s really an incremental step of having the public become aware of the project’s benefits and costs.”
Under state law, a PUD can establish and define the boundary of a local utility district to pay for a sewer system.
“There’s a lot of public process that would have to occur before any final decisions would need to be made,” Clallam County Planning Manager Steve Gray said.
“Nothing is going to be done without a public process,” added Clallam County Senior Planner Carol Creasey.
The state departments of Ecology and Health are reviewing a two-volume sewer facilities plan that PUD approved in August.
Since the plan was approved, PUD has received advisory petitions from the owners of 52 of 206 parcels within the proposed sewer utility district in support of the proposal.
“It’s just basically showing that there’s interest to continue to proceed,” Gray said.
Opposition
“We have a sewer facilities plan. We have an advisory petition, which is nonbinding, for the LUD. Both of those things are key components for us to continue to move forward.”
But opposition to the proposal is also robust.
Susanne Severeid and Dave Bendell organized a community meeting at Eastern Hills Community Church in Carlsborg last month where all in attendance signed a petition against the proposal.
“The won’t give us any real concrete information about the cost,” Bendell said.
“How can anyone make an intelligent decision if they don’t know what the cost is?” he asked.
“The other real concern is this could result in the upzoning of large portions of Carlsborg for high-density subdivisions that could change the rural character of the community.”
Gray said the Department of Community Development has offered to come out to talk to any group to explain what’s going on.
The proposed LUD is located in about two-thirds of the Carlsborg Urban Growth Area on both sides of Carlsborg Road.
It does not extend past the boundary of the 10-year-old urban growth area, nor does it include the mobile home parks within the UGA.
A final boundary for the conditional sewer district has not been set.
“We have received advisory petitions to move forward to prepare a method for determining the preliminary assessment so it really gets down to a parcel-by-parcel cost,” Martin explained.
“Presuming the PUD takes the advisory petitions and says it’s worth moving forward, the next step would be to do a special benefits study, which will look at how individual parcels would benefit potentially from a sewer,” Gray added.
“That’s how the assessment rates would be established.”
About $100 per month
Tharinger said a marketable rate for a single-family residence to use the sewer system would be about $100 per month.
Martin said that $100 figure remains PUD’s target, although the exact cost won’t be known until the special benefits study is completed.
The county has budgeted $4 million for the sewer, a quarter of which will be used to help low-income customers pay their share of the hookup.
Clallam County has a vested interest in a sewer because the Carlsborg Urban Growth Area was found noncompliant with the Growth Management Act by a state hearings board in April 2008.
The high-density zone lacked a sewer or a financially backed sewer plan, the growth board ruled.
“It [the sewer] would bring us into compliance,” Creasey said.
County commissioners Monday said they will hold a public hearing Dec. 14 and consider whether to extend interim zoning rules for the Carlsborg Urban Growth Area.
Interim zoning allows for single-family home construction and the expansion of structures that existed before the April 2008 ruling.
The other option would be to adopt rural zoning, which permits one dwelling per 4.8 acres instead of two homes on one acre.
Beyond the zoning aspect, proponents of the proposal said a sewer would protect the groundwater and Dungeness Bay from pollutants that are seeping into the permeable soil from septic systems currently being used.
Tharinger said there are more than a thousand jobs in Carlsborg, and failing to build a sewer and keep the urban growth area in place could result in the loss of some of those jobs.
“The key to this is getting grants or low-interest loans for the infrastructure costs,” Tharinger said.
The sewer project was one of a dozen targeted for a $10 million, 0.5 percent interest loan from the Public Works Trust Fund of the state Department of Commerce Public Works Board.
Sewer users would pay off the loan over 30 years.
Whether the project gets the loan is contingent on approval from the state Legislature and the governor, Creasey said.
“We won’t really know until May,” she said.
Meanwhile, the county is actively pursing other loans and grants to pay for the infrastructure.
“The local improvement utility district is basically to cover the costs that we can’t get from grants and county contributions,” Gray said.
Having a state-approved facilities plan and LUD would improve the funding prospects, Gray added.
“The key thing, though, is to have a finance plan that you could take to the hearings board and say we have this much from the county, we have the low-interest loan, we have these other grants if we do get them, and we have the LUD established,” Gray said.
“By putting those all together, you’d be able to demonstrate you can construct that facility. That’s what we need before we can go back to the hearings board on that.”
The Carlsborg Urban Growth Area was formed in 2000.
The facilities plan can be viewed at the PUD’s website at www.clallampud.net.
A list of frequently asked questions about the proposal can be found at the county’s website at www.clallam.net.
Anyone seeking more information is asked to phone Creasey at 417-2423 or e-mail ccreasey@co.clallam.wa.us.
“We’re willing to talk to any group that wants more information on this,” Gray said.
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
