Cape Coral may install water lines, skip sewers
By BRIAN LIBERATORE
Article Appeared Jan. 22, 2009 on 1A
This story focuses not just on the project, but on its impact to readers: $50 per month in extra fees, a reliable water source to replace shallow wells, and hundreds of new jobs.
The city’s plans for expanding its utilities has been one of the
biggest stories in Cape Coral. We continue to offer the most in-depth, up-to-date
and aggressive coverage available on this issue.
Cape Coral is planning what is likely the largest utility project in the
country. On Feb. 2, City Council may decide whether to install water lines
to an area roughly the size of Boston.
As planned, the $200 million project will be done in three years, providing
all 57,000 parcels north of Pine Island Road with city water. Most homes in
the north draw water from shallow, brackish wells. While the numbers are still
only estimates, City Finance Director Mark Mason expects property owners will
pay about $6,000 for a special assessment and an impact fee on an average
two-lot site.
"The key to this is once this water assessment is done, there would be
no more water assessments, ever," Mason said. "Future councils would
not have to deal with these kinds of assessments."
The project would mark the resurrection of the city's massive - and much maligned
- utility expansion project. Council members last year voted down a plan to
install water, sewer and irrigation lines as the economy pushed more and more
homeowners to the brink of foreclosure.
Councilman Tim Day floated the plan for only water utilities, noting that
assessments for the water are roughly a third the cost of all three utilities.
And with wells going dry, Day said the work needs to begin soon. The city
would revisit the area and install sewer utilities years later.
The plan departs drastically from the first incarnation of the UEP, which
called for installing all three utilities over 10 years.
"In a perfect world, you would install all three utilities," Day
said. "This is not a perfect world. People just can't afford it. A lot
of people are hanging on by the skin of their teeth. We don't want to tickle
their feet and have them fall off."
In deference to the downed economy and the continued slide in home values,
Mason said the city has worked out several hardship programs for paying the
fees:
- The city will discount the $6,000 by 20 percent discount for those who could pay in the first four months. The early payment would save the city borrowing costs.
- Those that fall below income levels set by the federal government can defer payments until they sell their home or no longer qualify.
- Those that can't afford the $6,000 could defer the payment for up to 10 years.
- Those that did nothing would see the cost applied to their tax bill over 20 years. With 6 percent interest, that's about $50 per month.
"We have probably 50 percent that are against and 50 percent that are for it," said Rick Williams, who heads the association. "A lot of people don't want the street dug up more than once. And cost is always an issue. Of course, people on the other side say the water is horrid coming out of the wells and they (wells) are expensive to maintain."
Those pushing for the project include the roughly 200 utility workers who lost their jobs when the city stopped work in SW 6-7. Larry Laws, with MWH, the company overseeing the project, said work in north Cape could create about 500 new jobs. MWH would put sections of the project out to bid similar to previous projects; however, the relative ease of installing water lines would make the work go faster and open up the project to more companies.
"Is it a good time?" asked Mayor Jim Burch. "Is there ever a good time? It's all sooner or later going to have to be done."