Rainbow MWD approves Pala Mesa Highlands sewer agreement

The Rainbow Municipal Water District has approved a sewer service agreement with Beazer Homes for sewer service connection to the future Pala Mesa Highlands development. A 4-0 Rainbow board vote, April 24, with Bill Stewart absent, approved the agreement in which Beazer Homes will pay $1,285,247 in addition to the $965,007 previously paid for sewer connection fees.

“Hopefully this is the last of the sewer agreements with that developer,” Rainbow general manager Tom Kennedy said.

Beazer Homes purchased the Pala Mesa Highlands property in April 2004. In March 2007, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved a tentative map which allowed Beazer Homes to subdivide 84.6 acres into 124 single-family lots. The supervisors approved the final map and secured agreements in August 2016. The Pala Mesa Highlands lots range from 2,400 to 3,600 square feet, and the development will be on 41.8 acres of the property with an open space lot accounting for the other 36.5 acres.

The secured agreements guarantee completion of the infrastructure and payment for materials and labor used for the infrastructure. The performance bond included $1,457,900 to cover improvement of water facilities and $1,313,400 for the improvement of sewer facilities. The agreement to improve the sewer facilities does not include capacity fees to cover the new development’s share of existing infrastructure.

In 1999, Rainbow allocated sewer capacity to the property, and in December 2013, Beazer Homes submitted a sewer permit application which included the eventual payment of $965,007 for 55 equivalent dwelling units of capacity. Rainbow and Beazer Homes entered into a sewer service agreement Dec. 14, 2015. That agreement had an expiration date of Dec. 14, 2017.

Rainbow revised its application procedure during that two-year period, and for subdivisions of more than five lots payment of fees or a sewer service agreement must now be finalized before a commitment of service. The agreement was not able to be completed by the Dec. 14, 2017, deadline, but Rainbow’s board voted 5-0, Dec. 5, to approve a six-month time extension of the agreement until June 14, 2018, in which Rainbow honored the $965,007 capacity fee amount of the 2013 agreement.

Based on current Rainbow fees and planned home sizes, the new sewer service agreement included the additional $1,285,247.

“Hopefully this is the last one to get them over the hump and get those homes completed and then we can be done with that project,” Kennedy said.