By Eliza Ridgeway

Constructing a sewer on the north side of town got more expensive for Los Altos Hills homeowners Thursday when the city council approved a connection fee increase to $7,950.

The former $800 fee to connect homes in the Palo Alto basin on the north side of town hadn’t been updated for decades.

The rate increase comes at the same time that Los Altos’ long-awaited sewer master plan has come to the city council for adoption.

Hills residents on the south side of town in the Los Altos basin connect to the Los Altos system and have been denied new connections in recent years.

Councilman Dean Warshawsky referred to the “eBay” system in the south Hills, in which residents desperate for sewer connections buy them from residents with surplus connections.

Thirty years ago when connections where not at a premium, some homeowners bought more than they needed, to allow for future subdivision and further development.

“The sewer study now tells them they’ve got capacity (to allow new connections), as I understand it,” said Councilman Mike O’Malley.

The cities’ staffs plan to meet this week to review the latest version of the sewer master plan, which, O’Malley said, “looks pretty close” to being finalized by Los Altos. The city council expects to include southern residents in the fee increase after settling an agreement for increased capacity with Los Altos. The town runs its own pipe through Palo Alto and pays that city a treatment fee. Farther south, residents connect to the Los Altos sewer system directly and rely on that city’s sewer policy.

The rate increases likely to accompany Los Altos’ new sewer plan will affect Hills residents in that system. They will also be assessed the Hills’ new connection charge.

“This buy-in fee is not a capacity right,” O’Malley said. “It is just a fee to connect to the basin structure.”

The system in the Hills is not set up to accommodate future users.

The increase would create a fund earmarked for extending sewer pipes to more homeowners. Homes not connected to the sewer system rely on fragile septic systems.

Alan Epstein, a resident in the Los Altos basin who constructed a sewer connection for his home, was mystified by the calculation of the fee increase, based upon projected future improvements.

“It’s too arbitrary,” he said.