Builders in West Linn will pay roughly $10,000 less per single-family home after the City Council approved cutting water system development charges from $12,871 to $2,644.
The 79% reduction, reported by the West Linn Tidings on Aug. 20, follows a consultant's finding that the city's water infrastructure is already sized for its future.
The council, led by Mayor Rory Bialostosky, approved the lower rate, though individual vote tallies were not included in available records. System development charges, or SDCs, are one-time fees developers pay to offset the cost new construction places on public systems like water mains and treatment capacity.
West Linn hired FCS, a Bowman Company, to evaluate its water SDC methodology. The consultant concluded that because West Linn is largely built out, with mostly smaller infill projects ahead, future demand on the water system will be minimal. The drop is steep.
City staff confirmed that existing water mains do not need capacity expansions to serve planned projects, including the new operations center the council recently priced at $38.2 million and a mixed-use development on Tannler Drive. The city's Water System Master Plan projects maximum daily demand will grow by just 1.26 million gallons per day between 2022 and 2043.
The fee cut lands at a moment when SDCs have been a friction point in West Linn's housing conversation. At a July 15 Planning Commission work session on Housing Production Strategy implementation, staff described SDCs as a sticking point that drives housing prices on a per-unit basis. A working group that includes homebuilders, city staff, county assessor staff and affordable housing developers has been examining SDC-related financial barriers.
Revenue squeeze
The reduction comes as West Linn simultaneously reevaluates how it pays for public services through its Framing Our Future initiative. The city receives only 13 cents of each property-tax dollar, and state law limits how quickly revenues can grow. That process could lead to taxpayer rate increases even as developer fees drop.
No effective date for the new $2,644 rate was specified in the staff report. Residents can follow the broader funding conversation through the city's Framing Our Future page online.
