CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Consider the Naperville Country Club request for the City of Naperville to furnish potable water supply for domestic purposes and pass the corresponding ordinance
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DEPARTMENT: Transportation, Engineering and Development
SUBMITTED BY: Darrell Blenniss, Director of Water Utilities and William J. Novack, P.E., Director of Transportation, Engineering and Development/City Engineer
BOARD/COMMISSION REVIEW:
N/A
BACKGROUND:
Connection to City utilities is generally reserved to those properties that have annexed into the City, however when looking at customers of the Naperville water and wastewater systems many unincorporated customers do exist.
Prior to a Municipal Code restriction that was put in place in the early 2000’s, any property owner who requested connection to our wastewater system was granted approval. There are also numerous unincorporated subdivisions, such as Century Hill, Longwood, Huntington and many more that have both water and wastewater service from the City. They became customers through a wide variety of reasons, ranging from the City taking over private water systems to the subject property never becoming contiguous to the City prior to expiration of the annexation agreement.
DISCUSSION:
The Naperville Country Club (NCC) is unincorporated and is currently connected to the City’s water system, however the connection is limited to the fire suppression system for the club house. Water for the club house’s domestic service (sinks, toilets, showers, etc.) is provided by NCC’s private water well which also provides water for irrigating the golf course.
Attached is a letter from the NCC requesting to expand their use of City water from fire suppression to domestic purposes. The hard water from the private well causes problems with kitchen equipment and switching to City water would improve operations. All unincorporated water users pay an additional ten percent surcharge on their water bills. NCC is aware of the surcharge.
For a variety of reasons NCC prefers to remain unincorporated. City staff did look at what benefits the City would miss by not requiring them to annex and the only item is the installation sidewalk along their Chicago Avenue frontage. Continuous sidewalk does exist along the south side of Chicago Avenue, and there are crosswalks at the Olesen and Charles Avenue traffic signals for pedestrians to safely cross from the north side to the south side of the street.
NCC understands and agrees that the use of domestic water is limited to the club house, and that if they ever cease operating as a country club they will lose the domestic water service.
If the majority of City Council members support this request, then the attached ordinance should be passed.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Approving the request results in additional water sales and revenue estimated at approximately $3,200 per year. The only loss is the installation sidewalk along their frontage, which has an approximate value of $200,000. If the property ever ceases to be a country club and redevelops this obligation could be placed on the future owner if they sought annexation.