2016.04.18 CC Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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2.0 Executive Summary 2.1 Location The cities of Centerville, Circle Pines, Columbus, Hugo, Lexington and Lino Lakes are located approximately 20 miles northeast of Saint Paul in Anoka and Washington counties. The region is situated amongst many lakes and includes a substantial amount of undeveloped land. The geographic location of the six cities is depicted in Figure Al. Figure A2 depicts current land use and Figure A3 depicts future land use. These figures are located in the Appendix A of this report. 2.2 Existing Water Systems Municipal water supply systems provide both potable drinking water and fire protection. The systems consist of supply, treatment, storage, and distribution piping to deliver water to customers. Each of the six cities currently owns and operates its own potable water system, and all six cities use groundwater for their water supply. However, the number and size of distribution watermain, number of groundwater supply wells, water quality, water treatment, and number of storage tanks varies between cities. There are several existing small diameter interconnections between some of the cities that allow water to flow between the separate systems for emergency uses. The age of the water system components also vary since the systems are at varying stages of development. There are two general groups in this regard, those that are can be classified as a developed city with little to no expected additional growth and those that can be classified as a growing city which have large undeveloped parcels and anticipate future growth. • Those classified as a developed city include: Lexington, Circle Pines and Centerville. These communities have more mature water systems which supply most or all of the developable area in their respective cities. • Those classified as a growing city include: Hugo, Lino Lakes and Columbus. They are projecting growth and new infrastructure to accommodate future populations. A depiction of the existing water systems is provided in Figure A4 in Appendix A. A key potential benefit of joining the systems together is that each of these groups has assets that can benefit the other. Generally, the fully developed cities' water systems have supply and storage that, when combined with the growing cities, can be used to meet future development needs. Conversely, the growing communities are able to generate capital via developers' fees and assessments. This creates a condition where a potential buyer with capital (growing city) can join up with a potential seller who has assets (developed city) needed by the buyer. The creation of a Joint Utility would connect the growing communities with the fully developed communities via a purchase of the needed assets. They would then enter into a long term relationship beneficial to both groups. 2.3 Summary of Joint System Analysis At a high level, the key advantages of a Joint Water Utility under Option 1—a jointly constructed, owned and operated supply, storage and treatment system, or Option 2—a jointly constructed, owned and operated supply, storage, treatment and distribution system are: For the growing cities: • Less expensive supply a Less expensive storage Joint Water Utility Feasibility Study 7