News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters voters will decide in November whether to charge top dollar for services to any building that goes up inside the city limits.
An initiative requiring the City of Sisters to charge the maximum systems development charges allowed by state law made it to the ballot with 98 qualified signatures.
The measure, put forward by a local political action committee, Citizens for Fair Development Charges, would impose maximum charges for parks, streets and sewer systems.
Systems development charges act as a kind of community savings account to maintain and expand infrastructure. New development pays according to its impact on the infrastructure.
According to Ken Emmrich of CFDC, "SDCs are to have growth pay as you go. It doesn't come back to the people in the city limits who have already paid for their services."
The city already charges the maximum rate - $2,867 - for water. The plan for a sewer calls for an SDC of approximately $3,200. Those charges are calculated by the water usage of an "equivalent dwelling unit." A single-family home is one EDU; a commercial building such as a restaurant could use several EDU in water.
The measure allows the city 180 days to implement the charges. That time frame worries city administrator Barbara Warren.
"I don't feel there's a way we can get it done in six months (from November)," Warren said, "because we don't have the staff to do it."
To charge SDC, the city must have a plan for service in place and a methodology established for calculating the charges.
The city currently has no parks plan and the transportation plan needed for street SDC is tied up with the city's comprehensive plan update, which has been in the works for seven years.
However, city planner Neil Thompson said the transportation plan could be adopted separately from the comprehensive plan after some more work.
Emmrich believes that, if the voters say they want SDC in 180 days, the city should hire some professionals and get the work done.
"If the citizens of Sisters approve this, they're telling the city, the city council, the city government, that this is what they want done," Emmrich said. "I'm not advocating that the city spend a lot of money, and I don't think they would."
The city already has one bid, from Shaun Pigott and Associates, to establish a methodology for SDC for parks, streets and sewers. According to Warren, Pigott's original bid of $5,740 would be boosted to about $6,500 because parks and street charges would have to be calculated from scratch.
As for the parks plan, city councilor Tim Clasen gave up his efforts to create a plan, telling the council July 23 that the effort would require a professional.
Clasen said people he's talked to indicated that would cost from $5,000 to $10,000. Warren said the city has not budgeted funds for a parks plan in fiscal 1998-99.
Parks and streets plans would also have to go through a series of public hearings before approval.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
Reader Comments(0)