Gypsum raising fees on new development to help offset $185 million required for incoming water, wastewater needs
John LaConte/Vail Daily
The Gypsum Town Council on Tuesday voted in favor of raising fees on new development in town, citing high costs associated with the town’s water and sewer services.
The fees will help new development pay its fair share when it comes to using the town’s water and sewer system, Town Manager Jeremy Rietmann told the council.
“When new development, or new residents enter the town, that also has an increased impact on all of these systems, and we want to make sure we are allocating as much appropriate cost to that new development as we can, to alleviate the financial burden on existing residents,” Rietmann said on Tuesday.
While the town is relatively well off when it comes to its taxpayer-supported general fund, its water and wastewater funds need to operate as enterprise funds, which means they don’t receive tax revenue and are instead dependent on rates and charges to function like an ordinary business.
This has posed a problem for rate-payers in Gypsum as those rates and charges have gone up in recent years, and with more investment into those systems still needed, rates could continue to go up in the coming years.
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The town recently completed a water system capacity study that forecast investment needs of nearly $90 million through 2031. Meanwhile, the town is currently constructing a $95 million wastewater treatment plant.
With all that in mind, Gypsum town staff recommended raising fees for developers, as well, as Gypsum currently has relatively low water tap and sewer tap fees for new hookups into those systems.
“The way that we get ahead of these costs is with water tap fee and sewer tap fee increases,” said Kevin Patrick, the town’s water attorney.
While Gypsum currently charges $8,000 per water tap, nearby Eagle charges $15,419 for the same service, and homes in the Upper Eagle River Water and Sanitation District are charged $19,419. Water dedication — for those who don’t have existing rights — is a relative bargain in Gypsum, which charges $12,000 per cubic acre foot, while the Upper Eagle River Water and Sanitation District charges $78,084 for the same amount of water dedication.
It will remain that way in Gypsum for the next 90 days, but according to a new ordinance passed Tuesday, tap fees will increase from $8,000 to $10,000 in Gypsum later this year, and will raise another $1,500 on Jan. 1, 2028, and another $1,500 on Jan. 1, 2029, to $13,000. Sewer tap fees will raise from $12,000 to $14,000 this year, another $1,500 in 2028 and another $1,500 in 2029, to $17,000. And water dedication fees will jump from $12,000 to $15,000 later this year.
“That $15,000 figure is still well below what we think the fair market value is right now,” Patrick said.
Tuesday’s ordinance passed unanimously.
“We have a lot of expenses coming up, so that’s what we’re trying to cover now, so that we don’t get caught behind the 8-ball when the time comes,” said Council member Tom Edwards.
