Lafayette dug a $75 Million financial hole by undercharging developers for water.  They want to fill that hole by drastically raising water bills for Residents!  Below is an attempted explanation that we got from City Staff.  

The City Council Meeting at 5:30 this Tuesday, 5/2, will begin with Public Comment.  ANYONE can show up, speak very briefly and then leave.  We need an outpouring of residents to show up.  PLEASE come and speak.  You don’t need to be eloquent - just tell them that you don’t want your water bill raised because they undercharged developers!  The Public Comment period is the first thing on the agenda at 5:30.  You can speak one minute and then leave.

The address is 1290 S. Public Road, Lafayette.

Explanation Received From City Staff:

“ There are a variety of legal precedents, state laws, and local charter and code provisions related to a local government’s ability to exact public improvements and infrastructure dedications (like water ) or assess impact fees to developers.  Colorado law authorizes local governments to condition land use approvals on dedication of property (including dedication of water rights) or payment of money in an amount roughly proportional to the impact of a proposed development on capital facilities. A local government cannot legally require a developer to offset more than the actual impact of their project.  The $75M figure was a rough estimate of what additional revenue might have been legally defensible for the City to collect from new customers connecting to the City water utility during the time period noted.   The extent to which local governments actually seek to defray costs through fees and exactions varies widely.  As was discussed on Monday night, some communities choose to collect substantially less than what might be legally defensible in the interest of advancing other community priorities.  

As an enterprise fund, the water utility relies on rates and fees assessed to customers to cover operating and capital costs.  Additional fees and exactions on new customers at the time of connection can help offset some capital costs, but ultimately all utility customers bear the burden of the overall cost to operate a safe and reliable utility and also share the overall benefits.  As one example, water rights dedicated with new development are largely from watersheds outside of the City’s primary sources on South Boulder Creek and Boulder Creek.  Rights from other river basins diversify the City’s portfolio and provide a benefit to all customers in the event of drought conditions in our primary watersheds. 

I do appreciate the concern that the proposed rate adjustments seem inequitable in the context of the City not maximizing its recovery of costs from new customers in recent years.   That said water costs, fees, and dedication requirements have varied widely over the City’s history and it’s not possible to pinpoint exactly what was considered equitable by decisionmakers at different points in time or which customers did or didn’t pay their fair share at the time of connection to the City system.  

Finally, I want to reiterate that Council did take action in 2021 to adjust water dedication/cash-in-lieu requirements based on average transfer costs of Colorado Big-Thompson project shares.  Council subsequently adjusted cash-in-lieu again in 2022 based on increases in average transfer costs.  Annual adjustments as part of the budget process are anticipated going forward. ”