The City Council voted to annex the upper Park Meadows neighborhood known as Mountain Top into the city water district. Homeowners approached the city last summer because their well had failed. There has been an interim emergency agreement in place with the development until now. Carolyn Murray has this:
In the Thursday night meeting, the City Council voted to annex the Mountain Top neighborhood into the city’s water system. It sits on Reisner Ridge just outside of the city limits. It’s a relatively small development of 10 homes and two vacant lots. Park City Mayor Andy Beerman said the residents asked the city earlier this summer to be annexed into the city’s water district.
“But there were a number of things that needed to be done with roads and safety before we could do that so we did not accept the annexation application and we told them to keep working on that. They have come back as an incremental measure and they have asked to annexed into our water district and the reason for that is their well has failed. Those homes are serviced by a well down in Park Meadows and old infrastructure and that has failed for those homes.”
Council member, Lynn Ware-Peek said the defunct well sits in the backyard of a property owner on Hackney Court which is in the older part of Park Meadows. According to Ware-Peek, the city has annexed other properties into the water district, specifically certain buildings on Park City Mountain before it was fully annexed into the city.
Fire protection is one good reason to do the annexation. Ware-Peek says if there had been a fire, there would not have been water to fight it.
Beerman said the homeowners had to assess their own impact fees before the city would consider the annexation.
“Park City has been providing water in the interim. We worked out and emergency water deal to provide it to them. And they have offered to pay all the fees to upgrade and connect to our water system. So, last night councilagreed to annex them into our water district which solves their immediate water needs and we no longer have to stop gap and provide emergency water to them. What’s important to stress is they made significant assessments individually. I think it was about a hundred thousand dollars per home to do what they need to do to upgrade the water system and to upgrade the roads. And, ultimately, they’re going to be putting in hydrants and such. So, this is not falling as a burden to Park City tax payers. They are paying to join the water district and are paying for all the upgrades.”
The Mountain Top Homeowners will also pay an elevation surcharge as well as the impact fees to re-do the system to bring it up to standard.