The City of Grants Pass asked FCS Group this year to extend its schedule of sewer system development charges (SDCs) to include other types of residential dwelling units including multi-family, mobile homes and recreational vehicle parking spaces.
The original calculation uses equivalent residential units (ERUs) to calculate the sewer SDC for new developments. It also assumes that one ERU is equivalent to 19 fixture units.
For multi-family dwelling units and mobile homes, it is recommended that Grants Pass follows the practice discussed in the original SDC methodology in Section III.D. That section recommended charging multi-family dwelling units at 0.64 ERUs per dwelling unit or based on the total fixture unit count -- whichever was higher. This method could also be used for mobile homes.
For RV parking spaces, city staff found that RVs tend to have between 7 and 10 fixture units. For simplicity of implementation, the City could assume an RV parking space has 9.5 fixture units, which would yield an SDC that is 50% of a single ERU.
The revised schedule of SDCs for all dwelling unit types (and fixture units) is summarized in a table. The sewer SDC at current rates is $4,374 per ERU or $230 per fixture unit. For reference, the maximum sewer SDC supported by the methodology was $5,012 per ERU or $264 per fixture unit.
The City Council plans to meet on February 5, 2025, to vote on these SDC rates.
