Does the Town Want to Share Septic Capacity?
by Dana Farley, Dave Marshall, Vince Crockenberg and Winslow Ladue,
February 24, 2011, page 7.....

At the 2009 Town Meeting voters asked the Selectboard to “explore the construction of a public or community facility or facilities for the purpose of providing wastewater disposal for residential and commercial use in West Charlotte village.” In August 2010 the Selectboard appointed us to a committee to explore this issue. Here are our preliminary findings and the questions that remain to be answered.
Wastewater capacity: In 2002 the town invested $125,000 in a municipal wastewater system that serves Fire and Rescue, the library, the Town Hall and the Senior Center. That system has a capacity of 4,999 gallons per day. It is currently collecting about 1,500 gallons per day, leaving 3,500 gallons per day in reserve. In addition, the town can expand the system at relatively low cost to 6,499 gallons per day and develop, at higher cost, significant additional capacity on the Burns and Lavalette properties.
Survey results: In November the committee surveyed residents and business owners in the West Village Commercial and Residential zone (the properties outlined on the map). At a then-estimated cost of $25,000 to $35,000, little interest was expressed in connecting to a town system. However, in follow-up interviews, several business and property owners along Ferry Road, between Route 7 and Greenbush Road, did say they would like access to additional septic capacity to support expansions to or new uses of their current properties. Accordingly, we then chose to focus on what we are calling the “Potential West Village Community Wastewater Service Area – Phase I” (shaded area on map).
Planning Commission: The committee met with the Planning Commission on January 20. At that meeting, the commission expressed general support for concentrating commercial development and community wastewater disposal in the West Village, particularly on Ferry Road, consistent with this section of the 2008 Town Plan:
“The Town needs to address water and sewer capacity in the Village and Commercial Districts in order to meet the Plan’s goal for compact settlement in the village areas. The analysis should include the consideration of a small community system to serve the West Village and Commercial District. This could help to increase developable land opportunities to achieve the current goals for small increases in local employment, some basic retail services, and a concentration of development in the village centers.”
Where to from here? Consistent with the Town Plan, the reserve capacity of the town’s wastewater system could be used for at least four purposes in the Village center:
to resolve failed commercial and residential systems
to expand existing municipal and commercial uses
to support new commercial and residential development
to be saved for future generations to use in circumstances that we cannot foresee.

Here are the policy questions to be answered before we can proceed further:
Should a portion of the unused capacity of the existing municipal building wastewater system be made available for private use to support the goal of concentrating development in the West Village center?
If the answer to this is yes, then:
Which uses get priority over others? Given that health and safety considerations must trump all others, some capacity should certainly be set aside to deal with failing systems when no other cost-effective solution might be available to a property owner. But how should we prioritize other uses—for example, new or expanded commercial development, adaptive re-use of existing buildings or new senior housing?
To encourage both compact development and a more vibrant commercial component in the West Village center, should new users of the municipal system be charged less than their pro-rata share of the costs incurred by the town in building the existing system in 2002? If so, how much less? Should residential users be charged more than, or less than, or the same as, commercial users? Given that the municipal system was fully paid for in 2002, with no expectation of payback over time, should new users be charged anything at all?
If all new users are required to pay their full pro-rata share of the $125,000 cost of the existing system, the hook-on cost would be $25 per gallon, or $10,500 for a three-bedroom home and $11,250 for a 15-seat cafe. But if the town decides to recover only a portion of the original construction cost, say 50%, then the connection costs for new users would drop in like proportion. This assumes that all other costs – excavating, drilling and piping – would be borne by the property holder.
At Town Meeting the Selectboard will briefly discuss these ideas, and the committee will conduct a hallway survey of Charlotters’ preferences on this matter. We’ll see you there.