Council to Discuss Sewage Plant Again

The Civic Arts Plaza will be filled with talk of sewage again Tuesday, when the Thousand Oaks City Council tries once more to break its two-year stalemate over the upgrade of the Hill Canyon Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Council members will review a plan to raise monthly sewer fees by $5.20 to pay for improvements to the aging sewer plant, which, according to city officials, needs to be expanded from 10 million to 14 million gallons a day in capacity.

Another option before the council is to approve an escalating sewer fee increase that would start at $3.75 in November and top off at $5.50 in 2009.

Mayor Judy Lazar and Councilmen Andy Fox and Mike Markey have long supported a proposal by Public Works Director Don Nelson to make the improvements by raising sewer fees to pay for a bond issue.

But Councilwomen Elois Zeanah and Linda Parks contend that Nelson’s proposal includes costly, unnecessary elements. They also contend the costs should be borne entirely by developers, and they dispute assertions by Nelson and various consultants that Thousand Oaks must split the costs between builders and residents because of state law. Raising sewer fees requires a four-fifths vote.

Parks and Zeanah have suggested approving some elements of Nelson’s plan now and postponing a decision on the others until more is known about the impacts of such things as federal clean water requirements that could, if waived, change the plan’s overall price tag.

But Markey said such an approach would cost taxpayers more in the long run, because financing the entire project at once with a bond issue is the least costly alternative.