The Queen Creek Town Council voted 5‑0 to begin the statutorily required 60‑day notice period to increase the town's wastewater capacity fees and to set a public hearing for 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 3, 2025; the motion as read on the record proposed an effective date of Jan. 5, 2026.

Deputy Town Manager and Chief Financial Officer Scott McCarty said the proposed update is driven by treatment‑plant capacity constraints and growth. "The fee essentially is a little bit more than doubling," McCarty said during the council presentation, pointing to infrastructure and lease costs the town plans to include in the calculation.

The council heard a technical presentation from Mark Skocific, the town's utilities director, and from Kuda Wekwe of DTA Public Finance, the consultant who ran the fee study. Staff told the council they used a 10‑year planning horizon (as required by state law) and a standard equivalent residential unit (ERU) of 168 gallons per day to project demand. Under the study's assumptions, staff estimated roughly 14,600 ERUs of growth over 10 years and said the near‑term expansion the fee would fund is approximately 2.0 million gallons per day of additional treatment capacity at the Greenfield Water Reclamation Plant or its near‑term alternatives.

Kuda Wekwe said the study produces a single‑family fee of about $6,100 per ERU, an increase the presentation described as about a 112 percent rise over the current fee. The presentation explained several items included in the calculation: roughly $2.6 million to lease partner capacity while the town completes design and construction; about $6.6 million of transmission and other growth‑attributable infrastructure; a $15 million payment described by staff as a one‑time true‑up related to the EPCOR exchange agreement; and a $10 million Title 42 state lands contribution that staff said reduces the fee burden.

Staff also recommended two methodological changes to how the town charges different land uses. First, the study proposes charging multifamily residential projects 75 percent of the single‑family ERU fee (staff and the consultant said that percentage reflects measured differences in persons‑per‑unit and observed flow data). Second, for commercial and industrial connections with larger meters, staff proposed moving from a strictly meter‑capacity approach to a more project‑specific flow analysis for meters at or above certain sizes; the consultant said that change is intended to more accurately align fees with actual wastewater generation.

James Ashley of the Home Builders Association, representing single‑family residential builders, told council the association recognizes the need for capacity and praised the town's stakeholder process: "Wastewater capacity to accommodate new growth, that's critical. And we acknowledge and appreciate and understand that," he said, while noting builders and staff would continue negotiating implementation timing and mitigation measures.

Council members pressed staff on distributional impacts and past undercollection. Council Member Brown asked about lost revenue staff had identified and whether prior meter‑based rules undercharged multifamily development; staff credited town utility staffer John Vandevort with identifying the multifamily variance during routine work. Utilities staff and the consultant said correcting the methodology is intended to align fees more closely with usage and to reduce cross‑subsidies between land uses going forward.

The motion approved by the council directs staff to post a notice of intent on the town's website and social media and to publish notice in the newspaper for not less than 20 days ahead of the Dec. 3 public hearing. If the council proceeds after the public hearing, staff said the earliest the fee could legally take effect under the statutory schedule would be in early January 2026.

Next steps include additional stakeholder meetings over the 60‑day period, a public hearing on Dec. 3 and, if adopted, a fee update and further adjustments when project designs for later expansions are more advanced.

Votes at a glance: The council approved a motion to publish a 60‑day notice of intention to increase wastewater capacity fees, schedule a public hearing for Dec. 3, 2025 at 6:30 p.m., and set a proposed effective date of Jan. 5, 2026; motion passed 5‑0.