By Lauren McSherry
 Los Altos city employees flush a sewer main on Edith Avenue. |
The main message residents can take away from Los Altos’ long-awaited sewer master plan is more money.
Residents could face another fee hike in the coming year to pay for capital projects, staff additions and new equipment recommended for the city’s aging sewer system, built nearly 50 years ago.
Rates could increase by more than $64 per month by the end of next year. The last time the city raised rates was in May, when they went up by about $24 per month or $252 annually on residents’ real estate tax bills.
But the city won’t raise rates all at once. The projected increase is $2.75 per month over 14 years, according to the plan.
“That rate increase may decrease or stay the same depending on changes in cost of construction, regulatory costs and changes in the schedule of projects,” said Jim Porter, public works director.
The plan, which has been four four years in the making, also lists the cost for improvements to the city’s 130 miles of sewers at more than $47 million over 19 years.
Corrected for inflation, that number is really about $68 million, according to the city’s sewer consultant.
The report calls for spending several million dollars on upgrades and maintenance each year.
On average, about $3.5 million will be spent each year, with additional capital projects during some years tacking on $1 million to $2.7 million to that number, Porter said.
For example, an extra $6.7 million is requested for the 2018-2019 fiscal year, he said.
The improvements suggested in the plan include replacing thousands of feet of degraded pipe, removing root blockages and documenting problem areas.
The report on the condition of the sewer system concludes that while the system performance was good, incidences of stoppages and overflows are worse than average compared with cities of similar size.
“We are now at the point where we must ramp up our maintenance program to meet the demands of an aging system,” according to a memo to the council.
The city council reviewed the plan Oct. 24 but postponed adopting it to give residents more time to review the substantial 300-page document, which can be viewed on the city’s Web site, www.ci.los-altos.ca.us.The plan will come before the council again at the regular meeting scheduled for Nov. 29.
