POLICY REPORT
FINANCE
Date: June 25, 1996
Dept. File No.
TO: Vancouver City Council
FROM: General Manager of Engineering Services
SUBJECT: Review of Miscellaneous Fees
RECOMMENDATION
A. THAT the minimum base fee for Encroachment Agreements be
increased from $100 to $115.
B. THAT fees for Encroachment Information be increased from $50
to $60.
C. THAT Council instruct the Permits and Licenses Department to
recover the City s cost of facilitating contaminated site
groundwater treatment programs and ship wastewater disposal
through a proposed volume fee; and THAT the proposed discharge
fee for 1996 be 20 cents per cubic metre.
D. THAT Council instruct Engineering Services to charge
an annual fee to the utility companies for each of
their manholes that drain into our combined sewer
system; and THAT the proposed utility manhole drain
fee for 1996 be $100 per manhole per year.
E. THAT Council instruct the Director of Legal Services to
prepare the necessary by-law amendments which will implement
the new Encroachment fee, contaminated site groundwater
discharge and ship wastewater disposal fee and utility manhole
drain fee schedules noted above.
COUNCIL POLICY
Council on January 17, 1991 resolved:
THAT every Department/Board review services for which fees are now
charged to ensure that fees are recovering the full cost of the services
to the City, or are equivalent to competitive charges where the fee is
of a market nature, rather than for cost recovery.
The 1995 Engineering Operating Budget as approved by Council included
the proposed Contaminated Site Groundwater Discharge Fee. The 1996
Engineering Operating Budget as approved by Council included the
proposed Utility Manhole Drain Fee and Contaminated Site Groundwater
Discharge Fee.
Section 302c) of the Vancouver Charter allows for requiring any or
occupier of any parcel of real property (which is capable of being
served by a sewer or drain in any abutting street) to pay a reasonable
rental therefor to the city whether or not the parcel is connected with
such sewer or drain;
PURPOSE
The purpose of this report is to recommend approval of revisions to two
fees in the Encroachment Bylaw, and implementation of utility manhole
drain and contaminated site groundwater discharge and ship wastewater
disposal fees.
BACKGROUND
There are approximately 50 existing fees that Engineering charges for
various services. All fees are reviewed on a regular basis, and
reported on to Council as required. The particular fees reviewed in this
report include those Engineering Services charges for providing
services to developers, property owners and street users.
Effective January 1, 1995, the GVS&DD implemented a new cost formula to
allocate secondary treatment construction and other regional costs based
on sewage flows measured at the treatment plants. As a result of these
changes, additional discharges into our sewer system, such as
groundwater treatment systems, ships and utility manhole drains, incur
increased levies for Vancouver.
In order to recover these costs, in the 1995 and 1996 Operating Budgets,
Council approved recommendations to establish fees for some of these
discharges.
FEES
Descriptions of the fees that are recommended to be changed are noted
below:
A. Encroachment Agreements
Encroachment Agreements regulate various types of infringements onto
City property from private property. The City charges an annual fee to
cover the rental of City property and related administrative costs. The
present annual fee for an encroachment is $100.00 for the first 150
square feet or less, and an additional charge of $3.00 per square foot
for the area above 150 square feet.
The base fee of $100.00 was set to recover the City s administrative
cost, and a rent for use of City property. This fee was last revised in
1992. We recommend that the base fee be increased to $115.00 to reflect
increased costs for administration. This increase takes into account
inflation increases and the increased costs for renting land in
Vancouver.
B. Encroachment Information
An Encroachment Information fee is charged when a request is made to
verify whether there are outstanding charges or liabilities registered
against a property, associated with encroachment agreements, easements
and indemnity agreements. The details of the search are then sent by
letter to the party who made the request.
The current fee of $50.00 per letter was last revised in 1990. Although
the amount of time and work involved in gathering this information
remains the same, it is recommended that the fee be increased to $60.00
for inflation increases since 1990.
New fees that are recommended to be implemented are outlined below:
C. Contaminated Site Groundwater Discharge and Ship Wastewater
Disposal Fee
Several sites in Vancouver, typically gas stations or industrial lands,
are required to pump up and treat contaminated groundwater. Once
treated, the water, which would otherwise not be introduced to the
sewer system, is discharged into a sewer. Currently, commercial sites
pay for the sewerage system through their property taxes. However, it
is proposed that beginning in 1998 all commercial sites will pay a
separate sewer utility, which is based on their metered water
consumption. Groundwater discharges are not reflected by the City s
water meter readings, and therefore, the City would not recover the cost
of conveying and treating these discharges under the sewer utility.
At present, the City issues a waste discharge permit and charges a fee
($1400 per year prorated to the time required) to recover the cost of
administrating contaminated sites. In order to recover Engineering s
operation and maintenance cost for facilitating this additional flow, a
proposed volume fee of 20 cents per cubic metre would be applied to
these permits. As the permit process is already in place, and the
contaminated sites environmental consultant already provides a flow
volume, the only additional administrative work would be the processing
of the extra fee.
The City receives requests from cruise ships to dispose of their
wastewater into our sewer system. Imposing a volume fee would allow the
City to recover its costs for conveying and treating this additional
flow.
The Vancouver Charter provides the authority to charge for connections
to the sewer system. The Sewer Use By-law must be amended to add a new
clause for rental of sewers which will convey groundwater discharge from
contaminated sites and wastewater from ships.
D. Utility Manhole Drain Fee
Several utility companies have manholes that allow them access to their
underground infrastructure. As infiltrating groundwater may impede
access to these manholes, the utility companies construct drains to our
sewer system that keep these manholes continually dry. Other
municipalities within the GVRD do not allow utility companies to connect
their drains to their sanitary sewers, but as Vancouver is still mostly
on a combined sewer system, a storm sewer is often not available.
Charging utility companies for introducing groundwater to our sewer
system will provide a financial incentive to only construct drains to
manholes that are accessed frequently and to plug up those that are no
longer required. Charging for manhole drains will also recover the
City s cost of conveying, pumping and treating the clean groundwater
that the drains introduce to the sewer system. As previously
mentioned, charges under the proposed future sewer utility, to be
introduced in 1998, are based on City supplied water consumption and
will therefore not apply to manholes draining groundwater.
The Vancouver Charter provides the authority to charge for connections
to the sewer system. However, a section under the Sewer Use By-law
should be written to outline the charging for groundwater discharge from
utility manhole drains. All utility companies have been notified of the
proposed manhole drain fee and have responded favourably.
A manhole drain that flows at only 1% of its capacity costs the City $92
per year for unnecessary treatment. Measured flows have been estimated
to cost the City of up to $6000 per year for a manhole drain. The
Sewers Design Branch concluded that an annual charge of $100 per
manhole drain will provide fair compensation.
PERSONNEL IMPLICATIONS
Permits and Licenses staff currently handling the waste discharge
permits for contaminated sites and cruise ships, would charge an
additional sewer discharge volume fee. Sewers Design staff will
establish an annual inventory of utility manhole drains. Finance will
then be responsible for issuing the invoices and processing the
payments. The processing of additional fees by Permits and Licenses and
Finance and the preparation of a manhole drain inventory will require no
additional resources within the respective departments.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
Recent reviews of the fees charged for Encroachment Agreements and
Encroachment Information indicate that these fees should be adjusted for
inflation.
The proposed utility manhole drain fee and contaminated site groundwater
discharge and ship wastewater disposal fee are established at a rate
that allows for administrative costs. The programs are therefore
completely self funding. The collected funds will be submitted to the
Sewers Operating Budget. It is anticipated that the amount collected
from contaminated sites will be $25,000 per year, and from utility
companies for manhole drains will be $100,000 per year.
CONCLUSIONS
As utility manhole drains discharge clean groundwater into our sewer
system, resulting in additional treatment and conveyance costs to the
City, and contributing to combined sewer overflows, an utility manhole
drain fee should be implemented.
As the City currently pays for conveying, pumping and treating the
groundwater from contaminated sites and the wastewater from cruise
ships, the City should also implement a fee to recover these costs.
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