Robinson Street Laneway Sanitary Sewer System

Report to: General Committee Report Date: March 01, 2010

SUBJECT: Robinson Street Laneway Sanitary Sewer System – Fees By-law

PREPARED BY: Prathapan Kumar, Acting Manager of Capital ROW, Ext. 2989

RECOMMENDATION:

1) THAT the report entitled “Robinson Street Laneway Sanitary Sewer System – Fees By-law” be received;

2) AND THAT Council enact a Fees By-law pursuant to Section 391 of the Municipal Act, 2001 for costs associated with the sanitary sewer system;

3) AND THAT the Finance Department be authorized to collect the total project costs for the Robinson Street Laneway Sanitary Sewer System from the four property owners of Robinson Street Laneway (as set out in the Fees By-law);

4) AND THAT the costs per lot be paid as either as an interest free lump sum payment or annually up to a maximum of 15 years accruing interest at the same rate as the current Region of York 15 Year Debenture Rate, 5% calculated annually in advance;

5) AND THAT any unpaid amounts be added to the tax account of each property owner;

6) AND THAT the collected funds be reimbursed to the Waterworks Stabilization Capital Reserve (88.4%) and Life Cycle Replacement and Capital Reserve Fund (11.6%) based on the funding split of the expenditures;

AND THAT Staff be authorized and directed to do all things necessary to give effect to this resolution.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Not Applicable

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this report is to seek Council’s approval of the Fees By-law for the recovery of the costs of the Robinson Street Laneway Sanitary System from the benefiting property owners.

BACKGROUND:

The Robinson Street Laneway is an 85m long single laneway, located on the north side of Robinson Street and west of Main Street Markham North (Attachment “A”). Five houses (#104, 106, 108, 110 and 112 Robinson Street) use this laneway as their vehicular access to their houses. These houses are currently served by individual septic systems, except #112 which has already been connected to the trunk sanitary sewer on Robinson Street.

On April 29, 2008, Council authorized staff to proceed with the construction of the Robinson Street Laneway Sanitary Sewer System and recover the costs in accordance with a fees by-law enacted pursuant to Section 391 of the Municipal Act, 2001. Council directed that the total project cost, including the costs for construction, engineering, contract administration, and any other project related costs, was to be shared by the four benefiting property owners in the following proportionate as agreed among them:

Address	Lot Cost
104 Robinson Street Laneway	$10,500.00
106 Robinson Street Laneway	$19,679.18
108 Robinson Street Laneway	$19,679.18
110 Robinson Street Laneway	$19,679.18

Note: The property owner of 104 Robinson Street obtained a quote from a contractor to install a service connection from the existing sanitary sewer on Robinson Street in the amount of $10,500.00 and informed that he will only contribute $10,500.00. All other three property owners agreed to equally share the balance cost at the meeting held on March 17, 2008 (Attachment “C”).

Dig-Con International Limited was awarded the contract in May 2008. The work is now complete.

OPTIONS/ DISCUSSION:

Fees By-law

According to Section 391 of the Municipal Act, 2001, Council is required to enact a fees by-law to recover the front-ended costs from the benefiting property owners. A fees by-law may provide for interest charges and other penalties for fees that are due and unpaid. Fees may be added to the tax roll and collected in the same manner as taxes (under Subsection 398(2) of the Municipal Act, 2001).

The Fees By-law may provide the residents with the option of paying the full amount either as one interest free lump sum payment or annually up to a maximum 15 years with interest payable at the same rate as the current 15 Year Region of York Debenture Interest Rate. The current rate is 5%. Payment in full of the outstanding balance plus accrued interest would be permitted at anytime.

Total Project Cost

A comparison of the estimated total project cost at the time of contract award in May 2008 and the actual project cost in December 2009 is shown below:

	At the time of Tender Award Report on May 2008	Total Project Cost in Dec 2009
Construction Cost (Option “A”)	$52,891.00	$52,891.00
Add: Construction Contingency	$8,103.78	$490.00
Sub Total	$60,994.78	$53,381.00
Add: Geotechnical Investigation during design phase	$2,940.00	$2,940.00
Add: Geotechnical Investigation during construction phase	$2,500.00	$4,015.00
Add: Administration Cost	-	$131.42
Total Construction Cost	$66,434.78	$60,467.42
Add: Design & Project Management by Town Staff (15% of total const. cost)	$9,965.22	$9,070.11
Total Project Costs	$76,400.00	$69,537.53