Besides, what if those future predictions are wrong? Will existing taxpayers have to pay to fix the problem, or face even more water rationing? The City never required the developers to supply water by some other means as long as their engineering calculations predict water pressure will be acceptable. Only if their modeling results show a problem will they have to install a separate municipal well and storage tank for the subdivision. What is to stop these developers from shopping around for an engineer who will give them 'acceptable' calculations so they can avoid spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on that expensive infrastructure? And if they do install a well, will it affect the water table for nearby homeowners with wells located a short distance away outside City limits? In any case, the City failed to adequately evaluate and mitigate this Project's water needs.
As it is, the taxpayers will have to subsidize this development with a gift of public money of over $360,000 for water connections anyway. The landowners only paid $500 each for these 42 water connections in 1991. But the City just raised its water connection fee for other people by 18 times as much to $9,400 per house. When their payment is adjusted for inflation over those years, these developers will have underpaid the City at today's cost more than $360,000 for their 42 new water hookups. If the City subsidizes some wealthy developers like this, is it any wonder the City can't afford to provide adequate water supplies elsewhere in this financially-trouble City? Is it fair that others of us will now have to endure higher monthly water rates as a result?
