Agenda - 03-23-2000 - 7 - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 show the dramatic variation identified in the OWASA study. The Efland study detected an approximate 30 percent differential between the smallest and largest categories (delineated by ranges of house square footages) of water users where the OWASA study detected nearly a 500 percent differential. There are a number of potential reasons why the Efland study did not detect a magnitude of water use variation similar to that in the OWASA study. The primary reason is that the range of housing sizes— and some characteristics associated with housing size (lawn irrigation systems and other types of equipment that are major water consumers) - are not nearly as great in Efland as in the Chapel Hill /Carrboro area. The ultimate implication of the Efland water use analysis is that a sewer availability fee calculated on a sliding scale based solely on a projected relationship between home size and system demand /impact can provide a thirty percent difference between the bottom and top of the scale. FINANCIAL IMPACT: While no specific fees or changes to existing fees is proposed herein, it is certainly possible that existing fees will be modified to reflect the information presented above. However, any changes in the fee structure to provide for sliding scale fees should be essentially revenue neutral when compared to the fee structure adopted in October 1999. RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board: 1) accept this report as information; 2) direct staff to develop a revised sliding scale fee proposal (to replace the existing acreage fee structure) to be taken to a public hearing for the purpose of receiving public comment, implementing the proposed fee structure and adopting the attendant changes to the RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING RULES AND REGULATIONS FO THE OPERATION OF A SEWER COLLECTION TREATMENT SYSTEM TO SERVE THE EFLAND AREA OF ORANGE COUNTY.