Oregon council on Monday will consider amending a sanitary sewer accommodation tap agreement for Cedar Point Development, LLC.

Public Service Director Paul Roman said at a committee of the whole meeting last Monday that the proposed ordinance would amend an existing sanitary sewer accommodation tap that was provided to Cedar Point Development LLC, 1040 N. Wynn Road, in 2005.

Cedar Point Development wants to tap into a sanitary sewer along Wynnscape Drive to provide service for another parcel.

“This ordinance really is at the request of Cedar Point Development to add another parcel, which would be another building, to that same accommodation tap,” said Roman. “The existing accommodation tap agreement must be amended to include that parcel as well as the additional area charge that is required. If a permanent sewer comes along in the future in the form of a petition, then these parcels would automatically be included in that project.”

Council member Sandy Bihn said she was opposed to accommodation taps.

“I inherently think that accommodation taps are unfair to people who have been assessed for sewers because they pretty much get a free ride. There is a subdivision off Brown Road that was able to get an accommodation tap and develop the whole subdivision without having a sewer assessment. There’s some inequity, I think, in the way we do these things,” said Bihn.

“What you’re seeing on Brown Road, they were assessed for that,” countered Mayor Mike Seferian.

“But subdivisions get assessed for the front footage on the main road, and then when you tap back into the subdivision, there’s no assessments within the subdivision. They install it themselves,” said Bihn.

“Correct, but that’s true anywhere because they put in their own structure,” said Seferian. “I realize it’s not a perfect system, but I think we’ve made attempts to try and make it as good as possible. We’ve made some adjustments but they still do pay on the area charge, especially in a commercial or industrial based accommodation tap. I think there’s a big gain. Those people don’t have the option to put in a sanitary sewer because it’s not there for them. At the time a sewer is ever put in, they do not have an option to be part of it - they are required to be part of it by this action. So it’s trying to make the best of a situation that isn’t perfect, and I think our system is pretty good.”

Bihn noted the problems the city had with Wynnscape, an industrial development on Wynn Road.

“The reality is that this comes out of the Wynnscape sewer line that was put in, and the assessments were extremely high. They weren’t paid, and they defaulted pretty much back to foreclosure. This is piggybacking on that sewer line and those assessments that I think, by and large, some of which the city paid for. There are other areas in the city where people would love to have sewers and can’t get their neighbors to agree to sign a petition. There’s always that give and take and struggle. I understand where you’re coming from. I just want to express a general concern about accommodation taps and how we use them. I think sometimes they are not as great as they are reported to be and sometimes they come off of something like Wynnscape, which failed,” said Bihn.

“Wynnscape failed, and it had a lot of assessments, but the type of sanitary sewer improvement they had there was probably the most cost effective of any in the city,” said Seferian.

“I think the accommodation tap is more of a gamble for the person who’s asking for it because they’re signing an agreement that they cannot say `no’ to in a future petition,” said Roman. “They’re betting that sewer’s not coming along right away. If it does, they’re part of that new project, and it’s as if they’re paying twice. And that’s happened to a lot of people. So I always warn them, when they come in, you really need to petition your neighbors to see if you need it a lot. I wouldn’t do this myself unless I knew that sewer was a long way off.”

Bihn asked if there was a site plan for the development.

“Certainly, Eagles Landing is down the road, and we would want to make sure that there are maybe some landscaping, trees, buffer, whatever, so that the area looks as good as it can,” said Bihn.

“This is a new development, and it’s in a commercial-industrial zoned area,” said Roman. “So whatever code requirements we have for design and review, we’ll make sure it’s correct.”

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