A 5-2 Longmont, Colo., City Council majority decided Wednesday night to ask voters' authorization to sell an estimated $36.3 million in bonds to help finance the city's share of costs for the Windy Gap Firming Project.
If voters approve the measure that the council will formally act on later this month and in August to advance to November's municipal election ballot, Longmont would not increase water rates again this year.
But the city's water customers would pay higher rates in 2018, with rates increasing by an average 13 percent above 2017 levels. There would be another 10 percent increase in 2019 and a 6 percent increase in 2020 as the city makes annual principal and interest repayments on the 20-year bonds.
The water rate-backed bonds, along with about $6.2 million the city projects it will be getting from development fees and other sources, would cover Longmont's costs of paying for the project that would be able to provide the city with about 10,000 acre-feet of water. A council majority continued to endorse the 10,000 acre-feet level on Wednesday night.
Mayor Dennis Coombs and council members Brian Bagley, Bonnie Finley, Jeff Moore and Gabe Santos voted Tuesday to direct the city staff to prepare an ordinance that will, when adopted, advance the bonding question to November's ballot.
Council members Polly Christensen and Joan Peck voted against the $36.3 million bonding scenario.
Christensen and Peck instead tried to get the council to support an alternative that would have lowered Longmont's Windy Gap Firming Project level from 10,000 acre-feet of water to an 8,000 acre-foot participation. That option would have maintained a set of 9 percent annual water rate increases that already are to take place at the start of 2018 and again in 2019, but with no rate increases above that 9 percent level in either of those years.
The Christensen-Peck approach, however, failed on a 5-2 vote, with all other council members voting against that option.
Santos said that when it comes to water delivery and supplies, "it's incumbent on us to make decisions for the future, for the next generations."
Coombs noted that under Longmont's tiered water-rate system, with residents' and businesses' actual water bills based on how much water they actually use, "people have some control," even with the pending increases ahead.
Customers "can take some responsibility" for conserving water, and thereby reducing the water bills they get, even with the higher rates ahead in future years, he said.
Peck, however, said she was concerned that "we're buying more (water) than we actually need" if Longmont sticks with the 10,000 acre-feet participation level from the Windy Gap Firming Project, which is to include construction of a new Chimney Hollow Reservoir southwest of Loveland.
Prior to the council's Wednesday night action to direct the staff to prepare the ballot measure language for the bonding option, a number of residents spoke about their opposition to that project and questioned its need. Some also objected to the entire concept of diverting water from the Western Slope to the Front Range.
But Todd Williams, chairman of the Longmont Water Board, argued that the higher level would better ensure Longmont gets the water it needs in years ahead. The board last year recommended the 10,000 acre-foot participation level instead of a 6,000 acre-foot level suggested in a 2012 analysis for the city.
