South Slope Drive owners learn Monday what the sewer will cost them

Homer property owners along South Slope Drive will find out Monday how much they owe for planned sewer improvements.

The City Council takes up Resolution 26-054 at its 6 pm meeting in the Cowles Council Chambers. It confirms that enough owners signed the petition to form a special assessment district, and approves the improvement plan, the estimated cost and the assessment methodology, the formula that sets what each parcel owes. The agenda does not list the cost estimate or the methodology; those appear in a memorandum from the city clerk.

A special assessment district is how Homer builds infrastructure that benefits one neighborhood rather than the whole city. Owners petition for it, and owners pay for it. Under city code a district can form once owners bearing at least half the assessed cost sign on.

What that share costs varies by project. The Homer Accelerated Water and Sewer Program covers part of some and none of others. Owners on Kachemak Drive paid 75 percent of their sewer extension. Owners in the Eric Lane subdivision paid all of theirs, because subdivision sewer work is not eligible for the program. When Hillside Acres formed a sewer district in 2002 at a 50 percent owner share, the estimated assessment came to about $11,464 per parcel.

Homer has normally split water and sewer assessments equally among the benefitted lots, though the city has acknowledged that lots with more frontage cost more to serve and that large lots may later subdivide.

South Slope Drive has been through this before. The city extended a water main along Shellfish Avenue and South Slope Drive about a decade ago, with property owners assessed for their share.

Owners petitioned for the sewer district and attended a May 27 public meeting on the proposal.