To fund water projects demanded by new growth, the Truckee Meadows Water Authority plans to institute a facility charge for new
construction starting next year.
The charge would apply to both commercial and residential construction
and would be a set amount based on the average gallon per minutes used.
Based on that, preliminary figures for the proposed facility charges
are $1,842 per residential unit and $2,632 for commercial and
industrial customers (see chart).
The one-time charges are designed to cover TMWA's additional costs of
serving water to newly constructed homes, offices, plants and
warehouses.
TMWA hopes to institute the charge in July 2003, although exactly how
it would be implemented is up for debate. The TMWA board, at the water
authority's strategic planning session two weeks ago, suggested making
the charge retroactive to a yet-to-be-determined date in order to
prevent a run on new construction trying to beat the charge deadline.
Such a rush of new construction could overwhelm both the city offices
responsible for construction permits and the like and TMWA, said David
Aiazzi, TMWA board member.
TMWA's technical advisory committee was scheduled to review the
proposed charges at its meeting last week. Early next year TMWA plans
to review them with the Northern Nevada Builders Association as well as
local developers and customers. The charges will require a change to
TMWA's Rule No. 9, a revision that TMWA plans to present to its board
