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2013 Update of Water and Wastewater Impact Fees <br />2013 DEVELOPMENT OF <br />WATER AND WASTEWATER IMPACT FEES <br />FOR THE CITY OF SAN MARCOS <br />1.0 BACKGROUND AND PROCESS <br />HDR Engineering was retained by the City of San Marcos (City) in February 2013 to assist the <br />City and its appointed Capital Improvements Advisory Committee (CIAC) in the development <br />and consideration of an update of the City's water and wastewater impact fees. The appointed <br />CIAC assists the City Council in overseeing the development of land use and capital <br />improvements information and the resulting calculation of maximum impact fee amounts for <br />Council consideration. <br />Because this is an update effort, the City is following the one -step Public Hearing process <br />outlined in Chapter 395 of the Texas Local Government Code where the CIAC considers the <br />land use, capital improvements information and maximum impact fee calculation all at once and <br />then reports its findings and recommendations to the City Council for one Public Hearing on the <br />updated information. <br />Consistent with State law, the methodology that was used determines the maximum fee <br />amounts through consideration of either: (a) a calculated credit for other methods of payments <br />for utility capital by a new customer, such as through utility rates or taxes, or (b) a reduction of <br />maximum fee amount equal to 50 percent of the unit capital cost of providing new service. By <br />maximum amounts, this means that the determined fee amounts were calculated as the highest <br />that can be lawfully levied by the City, given the prospective capital improvements plan, the cost <br />of existing and new utility capacity, and consideration of a credit to new customers for net <br />capital contributions made through rate payments. The City Council can decide to enact fees <br />less than the maximum amounts shown in this report. <br />As detailed later in this report, the overall maximum calculated water and wastewater fees were <br />developed as a sum of component pieces. For instance, the overall water maximum fee is <br />comprised of separate amounts for water supply, treatment, pumping, storage, and <br />transmission. The overall wastewater maximum fee is similarly comprised of wastewater <br />treatment, pumping, and interceptor components. This will facilitate the consideration of offsets <br />or credits from the applicable fee if a developer builds and dedicates eligible facilities to the City <br />or the City provides wholesale service to a neighboring utility and wishes to charge certain <br />portions of the fee to be collected by the wholesale customer and then passed to the City. <br />The maximum fee amounts do not include any capital costs for local (neighborhood) water <br />distribution or wastewater collection systems as these facilities are, by City policy, provided by <br />developers at their own expense, or if funded by the City, are typically used to provide service to <br />existing development. In either case, these local facilities would not be applicable for an impact <br />fee charge. Nor does the capital improvements plan include future project costs related to <br />rehabilitation or regulatory improvements that provide for existing customers. <br />City of San Marcos, Texas 1 <br />