Water & Wastewater System Development Charge Report
The City of Sisters conducts periodic updates to its Comprehensive Plan and its various Public Facility Plans to provide orderly and sustainable growth of municipal infrastructure. A key component to funding these public facilities is the system development charge (SDC) program. SDCs are one-time charges for new development—designed to recover the costs of infrastructure capacity needed to serve new development.
The City’s current schedule of water and wastewater SDCs was last reviewed and adopted by the City Council in May, 2018. In November, 2023, the City hired Donovan Enterprises, Inc. to review and update the SDC. A key component to funding public facilities and municipal infrastructure is the system development charge (SDC) program.
With this review and update, the City has stated a number of objectives:
- Review the basis for charges to ensure a consistent methodology;
- Address specific policy, administrative, and technical issues which had arisen from application of the existing SDCs;
- Determine the most appropriate and defensible fees, ensuring that development is paying its way;
- Consider possible revisions to the structure or basis of the charges which might improve equity or proportionality to demand;
- Provide clear, orderly documentation of the assumptions, methodology, and results, so that City staff could, by reference, respond to questions or concerns from the public.
