Coquitlam is moving forward with a two-tier water utility rate that will see residents in single-family homes pay more than people who live in condos or townhouses.
On Monday, council voted unanimously in favour of its water, sewage and drainage rates for the 2015, which will begin a five-year rate shift between housing types.
This year, owners of single-and multi-family homes paid $436; in 2015, owners of houses will pay $452 while condo and townhome owners will pay $408. Once the phase-in is complete in 2019, a multi-family homeowner will pay 60% of the single-family rate.
The change was made to create more equitable water rates, according to Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart. "Servicing 100 [multi-family] units perhaps takes 50 m of pipe and fittings," he said. "The same number of units for single-family homes would take 2 km. Clearly, it is much more expensive to run water service to single-family home than it is to an apartment building. That is recognized by many municipalities."
While Monday's vote was unanimous, several council members voiced concerns about the rate change.
During the last council meeting, councillors Terry O'Neill and Craig Hodge voted against the shift, saying they had doubts people living in single-family homes use more water than their multi-family counterparts.
But despite their concerns, both cast their votes in favour of the 2015 rates.
Coun. Brent Asmundson noted that costs should not be based on consumption but on the amount of money that is required to build and maintain the water infrastructure. He added that the city should have been more proactive in informing the public about the changes and the reasons for them.
"We should have done a better job up front on the information on how people were to understand why the change is happening," he said. "That is why we are causing some angst in the single-family areas."
A report to Coquitlam council Monday stated that multi-family homeowners use approximately half the water of single-family residents. It also noted that infrastructure and pipes are cheaper when servicing higher-density areas because the cost is spread out over more residents.
Currently, all residents pay the same amount regardless of housing type, a system that has been in place since the 1970s, when the city was mostly single-family homes and had a few condos.
Since that time, new multi-family units have shrunk while single-family units have gotten bigger, creating an imbalance in the water rate structure, according to city staff.
Coquitlam is not the first city to adopt a multi-tiered utility rate. In Burnaby, condo owners pay 57% of what single-family homeowners pay while in Richmond, 52% of the single-family rate is charged to owners of multi-family units.
