Developers planning to build in San Antonio will face increased costs for connecting to the city’s water system starting July 1.
The San Antonio City Council unanimously approved an update of the San Antonio Water System’s utility impact fees on Thursday, making it significantly more expensive for developers to connect to San Antonio’s water and wastewater grids. SAWS’ board of trustees approved the update in March, contingent on the council’s approval.
The council’s discussion on the change prior to voting was brief, although Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3) stressed that she would like to make sure the impact fees do not trickle down to residents moving into affordable housing builds, a point echoed by many of her fellow council members. San Antonio’s chief financial officer, Ben Gorzell, noted the city still awards partial and full impact fee waivers for affordable housing, historic rehabilitation and business development projects.
An impact fee is a one-time payment charged to a new development at the time of connection. SAWS uses income from the fees for system expansions and other capital improvements. Under state law, the municipal utility must update the fee every five years; it last did so in 2019.
The fees will help subsidize growth endeavors such as SAWS’ Aquifer Storage and Recovery program, Edwards Aquifer purchases, Carrizo Aquifer draws and SAWS’ brackish Edwards desalination efforts, according to SAWS officials.
Under the new fee structure, developers will pay an average of 23% more. The exact amount is based on a development’s location. The farther out from the existing system or the more difficult an area is to supply water and wastewater access, the more expensive the fee.
The most a developer can expect to pay in impact fees will be $11,528, with a minimum of $7,343. Formerly, the most a developer paid was $8,548 to develop on the city’s hilly and densely populated Northwest Side, and the minimum was $5,902 on the city’s flatter and less developed Southwest Side. The increases across the system range from 21.3% to 34.9%.
A third-party contractor calculated the fees, Tracey Lehmann, SAWS interim vice president of engineering, told SAWS trustees in March. They are based on SAWS’ projected growth in “equivalent dwelling units” (EDUs) — the equivalent of about 290 gallons of water per day and 200 gallons of wastewater per day. Over the next decade, SAWS projects it will need to serve 161,030 new water EDUs and 148,129 new wastewater EDUs, Lehmann said. The impact fees are meant to keep SAWS’ existing customers from having to subsidize growth, he added.
“Under these impact fees, growth will pay for itself,” SAWS President and CEO Robert Puente told the council Thursday.
Several developers who are members of SAWS’ Capital Improvements Advisory Committee spoke prior to the council’s vote, all voicing support for the changes. Susan Wright, chair of the committee, said there was a lot of distress among the committee members initially but SAWS was able to help answer all their questions.
“When developers agree to charge themselves those kinds of increases — and they do so with passion — I think that that speaks volumes,” she said.
