A Resolution Establishing A Utility Connection Fee Surcharge For The Development Of Utility Infrastructure Along State Road 52 Beginning At U.S. 41 And Ending At Interstate 75; Establishing The Rates For The Surcharge; Establishing the Boundaries For The Surcharge; Providing For Applicability And An Effective Date.

54:59All right. Um we are to P sixty

55:03So eight.

55:05All right. And then we go back to the R at the

55:09Right. P sixty eight, uh we have proof publication October twenty ninth, twenty twenty five, in the Tampa Bay Times, supplemented by site postings.

55:20Good afternoon, Commissioner Oakley. Do you have

55:23rezoning agenda rezoning items nor do you have any quasi judicial items so that the two items don't need to be sworn in or we don't need to reproce? Okay.

55:39Adolfo Gonzalez, uh Utilities Engineering and Contract Management Director. P sixty-eight is file number UTD twenty-six-zero zero nine eight. Sorry, resolution establishing a utility connection fee surcharge. With the development of utility infrastructure along State Route fifty two. beginning at US 41 and ending at Interstate 75. Establishing the rates for the surcharge, establishing the boundaries for the surcharge, providing for applicability and an effective date.

56:08Commissioner, as we have been planning and f and we're about to finalize the water, wastewater, and reclaimed water master plans for Pasco County Utilities. Our objective in uh considering future improvements is to maintain adequate water quality, flow, and pressure throughout our system and to our customers. We do that by looking at and monitoring trends in population growth, user demands, the existing condition of our utility infrastructure. We take all that

56:38into account when planning for future expansions to not just our wastewater and water plants but also our water main and and uh sewer uh transmission network. I'd like to focus on one item in terms of future demand and that's uh employment centers. This graphic shows within the county, the uh orange highlighted boxes, uh areas that are zoned as employment centers which derive which could derive an additional benefit to the county in terms of job uh creating jobs that will create additional uh economic growth

57:09for the county. Uh our focus is uh from the comprehensive plan. is to identify extensions that could serve future employment centers. Again the the the opportunity there is there to increase the economic uh base of the county. You can look at this graphic and see the dark blue lines are the existing extent of our water main network throughout the county. The light blue lines are the water main networks for other utilities such as cities and private utilities that are that

57:39operate within the county. I'd like to focus on

57:51That one right there, that employment center, that's called the Central Pasco Employment Village. Essentially along Stale Route 52 from Aaron Cutoff to Bellamy Brothers Boulevard. You can see that there isn't any uh adequate water supply near that employment center. We already have some commitments for uh development in that area that would also benefit from extensions in that area.

58:14Our plan is to take advantage of an upcoming Florida DOT construction project. The DOT plans to widen Stay World 52 from Aaron Cutoff to Abellamy Brothers. They're gonna start sometime next year. It would be great if we could start this water main and enforcement extension project to coincide with the DOT construction project with the hopes of minimizing uh disturbance to the traveling public in the future and also by saving costs up front. If we are able to incorporate into the DOT project uh in today's dollars, we'll be saving uh in

58:44the future in terms of the necessary water improv and sewer improvements needed for that quarter. That shows you the extent of where the water main connection would have to occur. Essentially we would have to bring water mains from US-41 up Air and Cutoff to 52, along 52, down Old Pasco Road to create another loop that would uh increase flows and pressures in that area.

59:09On the sewer side, similar thing. Here is the Uh Central Pasco employment village and you can see that we don't also we also don't have uh adequate uh sewer uh network near that that employment village. Our plan is to again leverage that DOT project to build uh the forcement along the 52 corridor with the road construction project. Uh that one will also require uh forcement extensions all the way to uh the Wesley Center of wastewater plant project.

59:42This is a blow up of that quarter along 52. You have airing cutoff on the west side. There is 52 all the way to I-75 or Old Pasco Road and down Old Pasco Road. The plan is to build both water and sewer extensions on Aaron cut off fifty two Old Pasco Road to serve that employment village but in the process of serving that employment village There's a potential area, what we call a service area, that has almost 16,000 equivalent residential units in that area. An

1:00:12equivalent residential unit is essentially one ERU, is the size of a typical average single-family home that requires water and sewer service from the county. With those water mains and force mains being planned for that area. We expect to serve around 16,000 ERUs in the area, some of which would be office and industrial, which generate jobs for the county. The plan is to construct these improvements to coincide with a phase out that's over four phases over the

1:00:42next 10 years, but starting now with the DOT construction project. those four phases will cost somewhere around sixty two million dollars in today's dollars, of which uh s uh starting a couple of years ago we budgeted uh $15 million for just water and sewer improvements on 52, but at that time we had not finished the master plans. We weren't sure the extent of how far beyond that quarter we would need pipelines. We now think that all those pipelines on Aaron, 52, and Old Pasco Uh

1:01:12it's gonna take about sixty-two million dollars worth of improvements, of which the county would fund uh a quarter of that. Up front, uh we have been working with a group of private investors, uh a group of property owners that could fund another forty percent of the uh the total cost, and the remaining third would come in the form of a utility surcharge fee assessed for each equivalent residential units. The county would fund that money up front, but then we would be reimbursed over time as those developments came

1:01:43online. With that, we're recommending that you approve uh the resolution that could serve not just the service area that's highlighted in blue in the graphic, but potentially if there's sufficient capacity available toward the end of the project, we may also be able to serve areas west of Erin Cutoff in those pink highlighted areas.

1:02:03Uh recommend you accept public comments and adopt the resolution. This is part of a companion item that will be heard next.

1:02:10Madam Chairman Could you go back to the slide with the finances?

1:02:18So the shortfall of twenty two million dollars, is that expected to be collected at a hundred percent out of this lower number of this the other surcharges coming up?

1:02:28Yes, based on those assumptions. So what we're assuming is that eighty percent of the total entitled uh ERUs will actually be built there and we developed a a uh a fee based on that eighty percent build up. By the way, Commissioner Ye We also looked at uh if there were any federal or state grants available to fund that shortfall. We cannot find any right now. Most of the grants are associated with uh water quality improvements, nutrient reduction, things like that. But for extensions, we could not find one right now. The other thing I I failed to mention

1:02:58is that the fees will be assessed and collected on Applications for connections to those mains. Within that service area, there are approximately 50 to 60. uh single family residentially zoned lots that would not be required to connect to the system. They are small enough, they're the comprehensive plan doesn't require them to connect to our system based on their density.

1:03:23What's the total number of dollars for the Office in Industrial Uses? What's what do you expect that number to be?

1:03:30We're not going to uh assess a fee on the US office and industrial because one of the reasons is that it's going to benefit the employment center in terms of providing that that water and sewer supply for the employment center. So all land uses except office and industrial will be assessed.

1:03:44Okay, so we we could be expected to carry on the on the other basis with the redential it could be twenty, thirty years before we got our money back from the sole system, correct?

1:03:53It could be depending on the bill dot schedule for each development.

1:03:57All right, so knowing that, I mean, you say there's no grants available for the the lines that we're trying to get though we are trying to bring office and industrial. And then looking at the jobs that are needed from this nation that we saw earlier today. Um I would like us to somehow be able to structure this where we can go after that number Which would supplant some of this other monies rather than waiting thirty years to get it. But not Not put us in s to say we're gonna supplant the money so we can't

1:04:27go after the grants, but if there's something that's out there and again with all the things that are out there, I mean we could put an AM skills plant out there, out train, uh other things could come out there between HVACs, etcetera. So I want I want to make sure we don't trap ourselves to be locked in the agreement where I can't go get that extra money. So I don't know how we structure it, but just like we talked about the other day, I wanna I don't wanna be trapping us to the f all full phases until I know that I've at least looked at what I can get for the let's

1:04:57say for the even the final phase.

1:04:59Well fortunately we have budget or we will be proposing a budget that's a four or five year phase budget for the project. So it's possible that in the out years we could uh eliminate those funds if we were to be able to secure some state or federal grant for it without affecting our obligations to the joint funding agreement.

1:05:17So and again to guarantee the joint funding agreement I want to make sure we have the verbiage in there that says we can go get outside money if it's available.

1:05:26Sure.

1:05:27Yep. Understood Commissioner.

1:05:29Can we go back to what about the sixteen thousand units, additional units? Is that what you're saying? So the approximately fifteen thousand units they're probably those folks are probably on septic and well.

1:05:41No, sir. Most of those are uh vacant, unimproved properties right now.

1:05:45They're not clean. But if without this they'll be on likely on septic And

1:05:50within the blue area? In a

1:05:51recharge area. What my point where I'm going with this is the well fields and the recharge area. And if we're looking at as commerce comes online and folks capture these properties if there's utilities there the septic to consumer conversion funds potentially because if we don't do this then they're all gonna be on septic system, right? And it's going straight to Tampa Bay's drinking water supply. Yeah. So you're on top of already the folks that are on septic

1:06:22and well in the area. Your your argument is basically it's a preemptive septic. Correct. Correct. And that's you know, fifteen thousand, that's you see some of the numbers that accept the stewer projects that are in the low thousands, you know, this is

1:06:38Well, those 15,000 are future. developments, future lots to be improved that don't account for any existing developments right now. Correct. So for instance, in that blue area, there's somewhere just under sixty lots that are zoned single family residential. all other lots within there are zones, sometimes some other kind of zoning, commercial, agricultural, industrial. But those single family residential are not required to connect, even if they had a water main. and sewer system along their property front because it's a low

1:07:08density. Now it could be done in terms of a septic to sewer program. uh but if they're very small areas that we would then incorporate as an individual sub-project.

1:07:18Yeah. So it gives them an option to get off. Maybe they abandon their their septic system and they stay on their wealth, their wealth's still good, but at least It's an opportunity to get off.

1:07:29We can't make them? No. Attached?

1:07:32No. He doesn't require them to connect to it, they can voluntarily.

1:07:38I thought if they were in a certain distance they had to

1:07:40Yeah, usually if you have a gravity main within a certain certain distance you can you are required to connect within a year. But this type of event wouldn't bother about it.

1:07:50All right.

1:07:52Madam Chair. Yeah. I mean you can't like try to imagine the Phillips family trying to connect to a fifty two and hooking up. Oh yeah.

1:07:59No, but if they're someone in this area where we're coming down the street.

1:08:04Well I mean fifty two is right in front of the Phillips property too, but Yeah, but you wouldn't make them have to run a line that far.

1:08:10No.

1:08:11But again again I I and I'm trying to make sure that as this is structured that we do not prevent ourselves, whether it be a septic sewer win that they actually see the value to that or some other grant that's out there, whatever it may be, I want to make sure we can still go after the the grant funds at the same time not slowing down what we're trying to do, at least phase one, two, three. Yeah.

1:08:29But I mean the basic question, Adolfo, is does this agreement prohibit us from Pursuing any additional funds, I just don't see our private agreement would prevent us from doing that.

1:08:39No, it may not prevent us from doing it with them, but if I get a government agency saying, Well you've already got it funded, we're not gonna give you the money, that's what I'm afraid of. I want to say that we have some type of clause in there that says we can go after the money in this agreement and acknowledges that. If not we'll cover it, but if we can go find funds, we're gonna try to do it. And our on our end.

1:08:59But

1:08:59I think

1:08:59your your problem would be with the federal government, not necessarily with the parties, if I'm understanding you correctly.

1:09:04Prob probably, but the state could do the same thing. I mean Swift Mund, look how the those agreements go. If we get outside money from the feds, Swift Mund cuts takes their share and cuts it out. I don't want to have any of that happen. I want to just take a shot, whatever may happen. Maybe we put a big AM skills out there. Maybe Ford builds some big training facility or some AC company like train wants to go build something for training. I don't want to prevent any of that being able to change to try to get that money.

1:09:29But if you're gonna put a clause in the agreement that says you can Go after a grant and uh Ms. Wolfcram is cutting me off, so I will yield to the Senior Assistant County Attorney.

1:09:44Uh I'm Jordan Wolfgram, Senior Assistant County Attorney. I think what you're trying to avoid is a supplanting issue, and because the agreement does not we cannot tie the board's hands. So because you annually appropriate your budget, the agreement will not interfere with your ability to remove that from your budget in order to avoid supplanting if grant funds become available later.

1:10:09So if we put some type of clause like that in this contract, I'd feel a little more comfortable. But I want to make sure if that's if that covers us with other grants, that's great. But I I think we should at least make mention of it that we could look to other things and want to be have that option without affecting other contributions that are becoming it.

1:10:25Okay, and I spoke with Clark who represents most yeah. Let me let him speak for his point.

1:10:34Commissioner Oakley, Hobby, Hobby and Hobby, uh PA 109 North Brussel Street, Tampa, Florida. Uh the property owners group has no objection to that, Commissioner. Um I certainly understand what staff is saying, which is they would what they would likely do if you ever were to receive that kind of funding was they would adjust the calculations for the charges at the time, which I think they'll be required to do. But we have no objection if in your resolution you wanted to add a clause that said there's nothing to prevent the county

1:11:04from later adjusting it based on grants that it receives.

1:11:08Let me ask this, are we paying a full 50% or are we paying a little bit more than 50%? The way this comes out all stages?

1:11:15The for phases one through three, the county will be paying fifty percent of the total cost for phases one through three. And then for phase four, the county is fully funding phase four.

1:11:26Okay, so I want to be able to make sure until that fully funding that we're paying for at the end, whatever that number is, that we can get grant money all the way to that before I worry about splitting back with the other parties. I wanna be able to reach out as much as I can. If we collect more than what that fift uh that that other extra money is, then we can go back to it. But I don't want to be taking we're we're fronting the end. I wanna make sure we can collect everything up to that bit before we start going back to do a Separation and split.

1:11:55And you're you're wanting that done in the agreement.

1:12:00The resolution has some assumptions baked into it that we made to calculate the surcharge. So if grant funding was received, that's what Clark's referring to is we would have to go back and recalculate the surcharge based on the funding that was received.

1:12:15But if I'm doing the final phase where I'm covering the full cost. and that money can be tied to that, there's no reason to go split back and recalculate those other numbers. I'm paying more than fifty percent because I'm pa covering the last phase, right? Of

1:12:30the overall project.

1:12:31Right. So I want to make sure that if I'm going to get money, I'm going to to make sure I'm collecting all that money before we dip into recalculating the other monies.

1:12:45Commissioner, I I think with the point that Jordan's trying to make is when the county adopts this kind of resolution is based on mathematical assumptions and if you get more money in there they necessarily have to recalculate the uh the funds at that point. There's I don't think there's anything wrong with putting in the resolution some kind of savings clause, which is what you're talking about. But to be clear that the property owners group portion of it, this is only on the county's funding. We wouldn't receive any of this funding

1:13:15in any event. So this is the county's money and if it wants to have language in its own uh resolution adopting this that has a savings clause that gives the county to readjust it based on grants. There's nothing wrong with that.

1:13:29So the based upon The fifty-fifty split. If I go outside source and I get all my money from an outside source and I cover myself that way, you're not gonna be looking to claw back fifty fifty.

1:13:48And then what we would have to do later if the grants occur is you might not need all of the surcharge revenue to make the county whole 'cause the way this is set up and just want everybody to know in the public, the county's getting made completely whole on its investment here. The POG is not. We're we're paying at the net amount the property owners group is going to net pay for the majority of this unrecooped. So but if the county recoupes more money so that it doesn't have to use

1:14:18general revenue funds or whatever, we have no objection to it. We have no right to that money under the agreement anyway. All you're doing is reimbursing us for up to fifty percent of what we spend designing, permitting, and constructing the project.

1:14:32Okay.

1:14:33All right.

1:14:34Thank you. All right, so with my concerns, do I need to do anything different with the resolution here or can you do do is that gonna cover the next item?

1:14:41I think you'd want to cover that in the next item ca uh 'cause that relates to the POG, not the the collection of the search organs. Right.

1:14:48Very good. Thank you.

1:14:50Okay,

1:14:50any other questions? Okay. Um is there anyone here in the public who wishes to speak to this item?

1:15:00Okay, seeing no one, I'll take a motion. Thank you.

1:15:03Wait a second, if I may. Jordan.

1:15:08If I just understood the conversation correctly, wouldn't the commissioner want to put it in the resolution, not the agreement? Because what what The representations have been is that the they can't flaw it back based on the agreement. the the res what the commissioner is asking for is that the that the surcharge would be readdressed, I think, if we

1:15:39get we can get money.

1:15:42It it would arr uh it would already be have to be readdressed because the assumptions would be would change and it says it will be reevaluated if the assumptions change.

1:15:56I am. I thought the I thought the concern was the POG having some right to any offset costs we found for the grant money. Is that

1:16:06Mr. Hobby represented that it's clear that they don't.

1:16:10Correct.

1:16:12So I don't I don't my my concern is you just said address it in the next item. The next item would be the agreement. That And what I'm hearing is that the agreement doesn't need to be addressed.

1:16:24Technically it doesn't, but if the commissioner wants the the language about the grant to protect the county's interest and prevent the POG from getting it, I can double down

1:16:37I I I I I would like to see a protection, whether it be one or the other. I'm just taking guidance from my expert uh to what's the best way to do it.

1:16:45Commissioner, there is a clause in the resolution that states that if the underlying assumptions change as to how we calculated that connection fee, then the county can come back and amend the connection fee, reduce it, increase it based on changes to the underlying assumptions. It's based on what we think we're gonna have to fund for the project. If we end up getting grants for it, that's a significant underlying assumption that change, we could then go back, amend the resolution to reduce

1:17:12But if I get that extra money, I'm not looking to amend the resolution. I will keep it keep the splits just the way they're going now. I just want to make sure that if we do get it, that they can't come back and claw back from us. You get this much money, we're gonna take this much back.

1:17:24Well that's good one.

1:17:27If I may, Madam Chairperson Joel too, I'm also representing Eisenhower Property Group. Um At the risk of complicating it. I'm gonna try to clarify it. the existing agreement, let's talk about that first because I really think that's where That's where part of the commissioner's concern is coming. The existing agreement says That The surcharges for two reasons. It is to ensure A future mechanism

1:17:57for one hundred percent Payback. of the county loan amount. that you're advancing to get the work done now. That's obviously a primary goal. But the second reason is to make sure that third parties who aren't funding $25 million, which my clients are not getting back, they're $25 million. on top of paying their base connection fees and on top of paying their surcharge is to make sure a

1:18:27third-party interloper can't come in and connect to that system for just a base connection fee without also paying what would be a fair proportionate share. for that money that's been spent. So that's why there was a mechanism that the surcharges establish an amount That's more. then you're required payback. And once you're paid back, that's when it becomes a 50-50 split because the county has made an investment and the private POG members have made an

1:18:57investment. So I think you have to be careful about saying we're just going to eliminate a surcharge. If you get grant money. Now, obviously, what would happen it would depend entirely on how much grant money did you get. And I think what Clark And the county attorney are saying is that if and when you get a grant so that you know exactly what you have, then you would be required to obviously adjust the surcharge ordinance. But all I'm saying is it's not simply a math thing because you'd have to say, okay, what

1:19:28is still a reasonable amount to charge for that proportionate share amount to avoid that. System. Um So that that's what I'm concerned about. Now the way the agreement is worded right now. I agree there's nothing there that precludes you whatsoever from seeking a grant. because it basically says you fund this however you decide to fund it. Okay, it's open ended. And logically, if you got a ten million dollar grant

1:19:59then you would reduce your loan amount. and the fact that you got the ten million dollar grant would go to reduce your loan amount and therefore you would be paid back sooner on your loan And once you're a hundred percent paid back between any grant And the surcharge, once you're 100% made whole, that's when the 50-50 split starts. So in my view, what really should happen is I actually would not change the surcharge ordinance. Because as

1:20:29the county attorney said, you would wait and revisit that based on what grant amount you do or don't get. I would suggest that you just add the provision you're looking for. A short provision added to the Funding agreement. That says nothing herein precludes the county from seeking and procuring state or federal grants. in which event any grant amount would reduce the required county loan amount. It's just that simple.

1:21:01Because the intent is for you to get wholly paid back. But only get wholly paid back, not more. And then once you're holy paid back, the deal's 50-50 on the surcharge. But I just would be careful building in language that suggests the surcharge might go away due to a grant because you still need to charge new third parties a reasonable proportion amount to tap into a system. So I hope that hope that helps, but my suggestion is to just add that provision to the funding agreement.

1:21:31Well, Mr. County Attorney? No, that's fine. Okay.

1:21:35Thank you.

1:21:37Okay, so then I'm ready for a motion, but I need what are we putting in?

1:21:41I'm ready to make a motion but I want to make sure how we want to structure the language that you're going to do. Well this not for the second

1:21:46based on based on what I've just heard, you don't need to make any modifications to the resolution. It's the it's the next item that you're okay. All right. Okay.

1:21:56Seth Weightman. Okay, and I don't think this is a little bit more. Okay. Any more discussion from the public? No, okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Whew, that was a lot of work for everybody, I know. Okay. Um now we're gonna go to

1:22:17We still have to do this.