Flushing out the flaws: not letting sewer fees swamp housing gains

Close to Home: Raising sewer fees will swamp housing gains

Sonoma County has made great strides toward making housing more attainable. Earlier this year, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an evidence-based and community-driven reform that reduced outdated development fees, helping to bring the cost of building new homes that serve working families closer to reality. But now, a proposal from Sonoma Water threatens to undo that progress.

Presented as a technical adjustment, Sonoma Water is proposing a steep increase in wastewater capacity charges for new homes. These charges would be imposed uniformly on all units, regardless of size. That means a 400-square-foot studio apartment would pay the same capacity fee as a sprawling four-bedroom home. This outdated, one-size-fits-all fee structure is inequitable, inefficient and out of step with the urgent housing needs of our community.

These proposed hikes — some more than doubling the current charges — are not aligned with the county’s broader housing affordability goals. They threaten to stifle the production of the types of homes we need most: small, multifamily, workforce-oriented housing that serves teachers, health care workers, farmworkers and young families. At a time when construction costs and interest rates are already making development incredibly difficult, this additional financial burden could mean the difference between a project moving forward or getting shelved.

Let’s be clear: Sonoma Water faces a real financial challenge. The water conservation efforts rightly encouraged over the past two decades have successfully reduced consumption and thus reduced revenue. But the solution to this shortfall should not be to disincentivize the very growth that can help stabilize the system.

In fact, the path to long-term revenue sustainability lies in growing the number of ratepayers — not pricing them out. Reducing and rightsizing sewer fees would make it more feasible to build multifamily housing, increasing the number of residents contributing to the system’s costs. Over time, this approach would generate more stable, distributed revenue than a sharp per-unit fee hike that deters housing development altogether.

Moreover, the current methodology for calculating these fees violates the principle of fairness. State law requires that such charges be proportionate to the burden placed on the system. A blanket per-door charge is neither proportional nor equitable. We should be encouraging efficient, space-conscious development — not penalizing it. Our understanding is that Sonoma Water is just six months away from a study that will analyze a proportional model.

Accordingly, we make a simple and common sense ask to the supervisors, who are scheduled to consider this matter on Tuesday: Please stay consistent with your efforts to incentivize the housing we need and reject this proposal in order to complete Sonoma Water’s proportional model study and develop a rightsize approach. This is the opportunity to strike the right balance between incentivizing housing and responsibly managing our infrastructure maintenance and improvement needs.

We urge the Board of Supervisors to direct Sonoma Water to return with a revised proposal that calculates fees based on unit size, plumbing fixture count or another reasonable proxy for actual system impact; aligns with the county’s adopted housing and climate goals; and incentivizes the kinds of development that will allow our children, seniors and workforce to live and thrive here.

We can’t let sewer fees become another roadblock to housing.

This editorial was published in The Press Democrat.