News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Residents of Buck Run Phase III in Sisters protested being left off the city's sewer system at a heated city council meeting on Thursday, September 13.
The homeowners in the 17-lot subdivision at the south end of Sisters are being required to put their own main lines and laterals in neighborhood streets to hook up to the system. Most of them were never told that they were responsible for building their own infrastructure. The cost of running mains and laterals is estimated by the city at somewhere between $4,000 and $4,500 per lot.
Several Buck Run residents said they would not have bought lots in Phase III if they had known they would have to pay for the infrastructure.
The subdivision was laid out and approved after the 1997 cutoff point that determined what parts of the City of Sisters would be served by the sewer. Developer Mylon Buck sought approval before the vote was cast and elected not to put sewer pipe in the streets.
According to the city, once the vote passed, developments were required to install or pay for the installation of their own wastewater infrastructure.
In a July 26 letter to property owners, city attorney Steve Bryant asserted that, "At the time a building permit was sought for each of the developed properties within the subdivision, the city's planning director discussed this issue with the property owner and/or the builder and specifically said that the subdivision was not part of the waste water project and that the property owners would need to install the infrastructure to the subdivision to service their lots."
It appears that that statement is not accurate.
According to city planning director Neil Thompson, different property owners were informed of their status in varying degrees of detail over a period of several months.
After November 3, 1999, building permits indicated only that:
"This development is not in the initial voter approved scope of the sewer project. When service is available, this home shall connect to the sewer. A System Development Charge (SDC) will be charged to the owner of the property ..."
The SDC estimate was $3,000.
It was not until February or March of 2000, Thompson said -- after funding was secured and after final engineering drawings were compiled -- that he began to inform property owners specifically that they would be responsible for putting pipe in the street to bring the system to their property line and thence to their home.
"I didn't hold anything back," Thompson said. "Unfortunately, as time goes by and the situation changes, you know more."
At least five property owners received their building permits before Thompson started informing the Phase III owners that they would be responsible for their own mains and laterals.
Three other property owners received their permits after Thompson said he began informing them that they were responsible for the infrastructure. One of those was Virginia Gunderson.
She claims she was not told.
"While getting our building permits, plus other visits to city planning we were told several times that the sewer would be to our home by the maximum time of two years, but probably sooner with a $3,000 SDC (systems development charge)," Gunderson told the council Thursday night.
"At no time was it ever mentioned that we would be made to put in our own infrastructure or laterals."
City planner Neil Thompson said that this is not true.
"Mrs. Gunderson was, without a doubt, informed," Thompson said. In fact, Thompson said, he "begged" Gunderson not to spend large amounts of money on a sand filtration septic system and to wait to build.
Thompson says he told Gunderson, "you might end up spending that money and then spend it again" to get sewer service to the property.
Some properties in Phase III along Tyee Drive actually did get laterals installed by the city. They were served off a main line along Tyee that ran to the Fourth Sister Lodge. That, according to Thompson, was a fortuitous bit of engineering.
The city ran that line there because it eliminated the need for an extra pump station, he said.
"It would have been foolish not to serve those people," Thompson told The Nugget. "They were lucky."
Homeowner Michael Robillard argued that service to four Phase III properties is further evidence that other residents are being discriminated against.
That brought a sharp retort during the council meeting from Mayor Steve Wilson, who was visibly angered by accusations of unfair treatment.
"I'm differentiating by law," he said. "I'm not discriminating (against) anyone."
Wilson argues that the city cannot simply use sewer funds to pick up the bill for the Phase III residents because that would be a violation of the grant and loan agreements under which the sewer system was built.
Those grants and loans were based on the 1997 "snapshot" of the existing properties in Sisters.
"You're asking me for something I can't legally give you," he said.
Wilson later told The Nugget that he hopes to work through this impasse with the residents in a less confrontational setting.
"Last night (at the council meeting) I'll be the first to admit, was counterproductive," Wilson said on Friday, September 14. "I take the lion's share of responsibility for that.
"I think we can sit down and explore options from a constructive standpoint. I'm going to push for a workshop setting where we all sit around a table and roll up our sleeves."
Wilson said the city would try to put together a range of options to get service to the Phase III residents and lighten the cost burden.
Homeowner Robillard was cautiously receptive to the mayor's olive branch offering.
"I'm open to hear what they have to say, but at this point I still haven't seen anything to show that we're responsible for it," he said. "We're willing to meet, but I'm not sure they're going to be able to fix it."
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.
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