SEQUIM – Action taken by the City Council Monday will result in Sequim having the highest water hookup fees in the four cities of the North Olympic Peninsula.
Council members voted unanimously Monday to raise hookup fees to $3,175 for residential water service and $4,350 for residential sewer service.
The City Council plans a special meeting at 9 a.m. next Monday in the Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St. to consider formally adopt an ordinance putting the fees into effect.
Consultant Ashley Emery told the City Council that Port Townsend charges $2,500 for a residential water hookup. Port Angeles gets $1,200, while Forks charges home builders $650 to tap into its water system.
The current Sequim water hookup fee for a residential unit is $1,500 while the sewer fee is $1,875.
The new Sequim fees will be considered interim until more study is done.
The vote to raise the fees took place after a lot of agonizing.
Council members anticipate paying for some $23 million in capital improvements over the next 10 years.
One revenue-raising possibility suggested by Gray & Osborne, a Seattle engineering firm, was to raise fees to $4,518 for tapping into city water and $6,592 for sewer service.
Those who come to Sequim to build houses should shell out those amounts, Gray & Osborne recommended.
Council members recoiled from the recommended fees.
