The Queen Creek Town Council voted 5-0 to begin the statutory process to increase wastewater capacity fees, setting a public hearing for 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 3 and a proposed effective date of Jan. 5, 2026.

The action launches a 60-day notice period required by state statute and follows a staff presentation explaining why the town needs additional capacity and how the fee calculation was updated. Deputy Town Manager and Chief Financial Officer Scott McCarty, Utilities Director Mark Skocific and consultant Kuda Wekwe of DTA Public Finance told the council the update is intended to fund a planned expansion of regional treatment capacity and other transmission infrastructure that growth will require.

"The agenda item for you tonight is the initiation of a process or the initiation of the process to increase our wastewater, capacity fees," Scott McCarty said during his presentation. He and staff emphasized the update is governed by state law that requires a 10-year planning horizon and that fees be "fair and reasonable" across land uses.

Why it matters

Town staff and the consultant said growth over the next 10 years will create new demand equivalent to about 14,600 single-family residential equivalents (ERUs), using an estimate of 168 gallons per ERU per day. That demand translates to roughly 2.5 million gallons per day of treatment capacity needed; the fee update covers a 2.0 million-gallon expansion the town expects to build in the near term and associated mains and facilities.

Kuda Wekwe summarized the results of the fee model: "We're at about just under 12,000 ERUs that can be supported with that expansion. And so from that, we're able to determine a fee per equivalent house of about $6,100," a roughly 112% increase from current fee levels, he said.

Key costs and offsets

Staff identified several discrete cost items included in the calculation:
- A planned 2.0 MGD expansion at the Greenfield Water Reclamation Plant (a partnership plant serving Mesa, Gilbert and Queen Creek) and associated transmission work. Staff said further expansion beyond Greenfield will likely require a new facility on the town's east side in later years.
- About $2.6 million to lease partner capacity while the town designs and builds its expansion.
- Roughly $6.6 million of previously built transmission and supporting improvements attributed to growth and included in the fee calculation.
- A $15 million payment the council previously approved to account for wastewater capacity for accounts acquired through an exchange agreement with EPCOR (the transcript refers to this as a payment "on behalf" of those accounts).

Staff also reported offsets that reduce the net fee: $10 million provided through state Title 42 (state lands) toward infrastructure and existing capacity-fee cash balances collected to date.

Methodology changes staff proposed

Staff and the consultant recommended two substantive methodology changes the council was asked to consider as part of the update:
1) A new multifamily allocation. Based on local flow analyses and census household-occupancy comparisons, the consultant recommended charging multifamily developments 75% of the single-family fee per unit (multifamily ERU = 0.75 of single-family ERU). The presenter said multifamily projects historically paid substantially different amounts under a meter-size approach, producing large per-unit disparities between projects.
2) More project-specific treatment for larger commercial/industrial meters. For commercial or industrial connections with meters at or above 2 inches, staff proposed using a site-specific annual-flow analysis rather than relying solely on a capacity-ratio lookup tied to meter size.

Questions, stakeholder input and next steps

James Ashley of the Home Builders Association spoke in support of the town’s transparent stakeholder outreach, saying the builders "appreciate what the town is doing to meet those capacity needs." Staff said they have already met with a focus group and intend further meetings with the multifamily housing association and other stakeholders during the 60-day notice period.

Councilmember Brown, who moved the motion to start the notice period, asked how the current under-allocation to multifamily affected prior revenue and whether existing residents were subsidizing growth. McCarty said the previous methodology and higher-than-expected multifamily build-out helped accelerate capacity needs and that regular updates would reduce such imbalances over time.

Council action

Councilmember Brown moved the following motion (read into the record): to approve a 60-day notice of intention to increase wastewater capacity fees, set a public hearing for 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 3, 2025 to consider approving the fee increase with an effective date of Jan. 5, 2026, and to post and publish required notices. The motion passed 5-0.

What the council did not decide tonight

The vote starts the formal notice-and-hearing process; it did not adopt a final fee ordinance or set final rates. Staff and the consultant said the public hearing on Dec. 3 is the meeting at which the council could take final action after the statutorily required notice period and additional stakeholder input.

The council and staff identified implementation details—effective date, possible phase-ins or other mitigation measures—as topics for continued stakeholder discussion during the 60-day period.

For now, the town has set the public hearing on Dec. 3, begun the statutory notice period, and told developers and other stakeholders the earliest the adopted fee could take effect is Jan. 5, 2026.