Some of the Hart Highlands residents waiting for sanitary sewers don't want to wait longer than they have to.
During Monday night's meeting, city council approved a request from a group of Ridgeview Drive homeowners who have splintered from the rest of the project's second phase asking to move forward on the process to service their properties this year separately from the remainder of those living in the Killarney Drive/Sussex Lane/ Wildwood Crescent area.
In a letter to the city, signed by 16 of the 19 affected homeowners, the Ridgeview residents said they know a formal vote on whether to approve the necessary tax to fund the work must be conducted quickly.
"Note that the potential and continued risk of independent septic system failure in 2015 is a very real concern for many of us," the letter said, also asking the city to "maintain the momentum" of the sanitary sewer project that realized cost savings for those in the first phase.
"From an engineering standpoint it would be possible to service either area independently," said a staff report from the public works department, as Ridgeview Drive is geographically separated from the other three streets in the second phase by Nixon Crescent.
The split was really a return to form, explained associate public works director Gina Layte Liston, as the Ridgeview portion was its own project until fairly recently. It was consolidated with the rest of the neighbourhood as a means of efficiency.
In order for the city to move ahead with such a project, it requires the formal approval for a local area service tax from at least half of the affected homeowners who represent at least half of the property values.
The overall cost of installing a sanitary sewer line to service the Ridgeview homes is estimated at about $560,000 - which works out to a little more than $29,000 per homeowner in a local area service tax that gets added to the property tax bill to be paid over a 20-year period.
Each homeowner also has to pay separately to hook into the city sewer line from their property.
This is a higher cost than the $1.5 million ultimately charged to the 100 residents on Berwick and Dundee Drives, Wallace Crescent, Wallace Place and part of Langley Crescent who underwent the process last year.
The extra comes from needing more sewer main per lot, having more extensive landscape to restore post construction, having underground cable, telephone and hydro wires and sharper bends in the road, according to a staff report. The estimate was based on the cost of contracted-out projects over the past five years and includes a 15 per cent contingency.
Initial estimates for the first phase came in at $2.4 million, but the actual cost was almost $1 million cheaper due to the city doing the work itself, getting good weather during the construction period and having a free gravel source.
Staff are looking at upgrading water main infrastructure in the area at the same time as the sanitary sewer installation to potentially save some money.
"These cost savings have not yet been fully calculated, but it is expected that they will bring the cost per household closer to those incurred in Phase 1," said the staff report.
Last month, the second phase group made its case to the city for consideration of their project for a joint federal-provincial infrastructure grant. Council ultimately decided not to submit an application that could help cover the installation costs, instead choosing to back a submission for a Fraser River anti-erosion project.
In their letter to the city, the Ridgeview residents said they understand their request to move ahead "is not subject to any grant funding."
