[Adopted 1-20-2003 by Ord. No. 2127 (Ch. 13.24 of the 1997 Code)]
Any owner of real property located within the facility planning area ("FPA") of the City, as the FPA boundaries of the City now exist or shall be hereafter amended, or in the event of the abolition of the City's FPA by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency ("IEPA") or the United States Environmental Protection Agency ("USEPA"), then as said boundaries existed at the time of the abolition of the same, who proposes to construct public sanitary sewer disposal and/or potable water transmission service facilities which can be used to serve other properties in the Columbia FPA (hereinafter referred to in this Part 4 as the "sponsor") may make application to the City Council for recoupment by said sponsor of a proportionate share of the total cost to construct the sanitary sewer and/or water distribution facilities from off-premises, benefitted property owners who directly connect or indirectly use the same, in accordance with the provisions and requirements of this Part 4. After completion of the construction and installation of the public sanitary sewer line or water transmission main and their appurtenances for which the sponsor is seeking recoupment, the sponsor shall provide the City Engineer or his designee with City required verification of the costs incurred for the improvements involved. The City Engineer or his designee will review the same and make recommendations to the City Council regarding the necessity and reasonableness of the same and otherwise regarding approval for recoupment or recapture of all or part of the costs involved. The City Council shall decide whether or not it is in the public interest to allow for reimbursement of all or any part of the proposed construction costs under this Part 4. If the City Council decides that it is in the public interest, then the parties shall make and enter into an appropriate recoupment agreement, same to be authorized and approved by enactment of a City ordinance.
Since the making of and entering into public sanitary sewer and/or public water recoupment agreements with land developers is discretionary with the City, prior to the City making and entering into such agreements it shall be the policy of the City that: the City shall find and declare that is in the interest of the City to cooperate with the land developer in allowing the land developer to recoup or recapture part of the developer's costs incurred to construct and install the sanitary sewer and/or water service involved. The ordinance of the City authorizing such an agreement shall set forth in the preamble of that ordinance how and why it is in the best interest of the City to acquire the facilities involved and allow the developer to recoup part of their costs incurred therefor. Since the City is required to incur legal fees, engineering fees and recording costs to make and enter into such agreements, the City may require reimbursement of those expenses as a condition for making and entering into recoupment agreements. Since the City is required to incur some costs for the administration of recoupment agreements and to collect for and remit payment of recoupment fees to land developers pursuant to recoupment agreements, the City may require payment or reimbursement of those expenses when making and entering into such agreements.
If the City Council finds that it is in the public interest to assist a sponsor in recouping or recapturing funds the sponsor expended for construction of public sanitary sewer and/or water distribution facilities, which have been constructed by the sponsor and dedicated to the City, the City Council shall make and enter into a recoupment agreement with the sponsor. Once made and entered into, the recoupment agreement shall be filed with the Recorder of each county in which the City's FPA is located in order to notify persons interested in connecting to or using the facilities that there will be a recoupment charge in relation thereto. If the facilities have not been constructed prior to the parties entering into a recoupment agreement, said contract shall also provide for the dedication to the City of the capital improvements involved for public use upon completion of the construction of the same in compliance with the City's codes and ordinances and acceptance thereof by the City. Said contract shall further provide that both the sponsor and other potential users of the capital improvements constructed by the sponsor shall each paying their proportionate share of the total cost of such construction. Such recoupment shall be paid to such sponsor based upon the schedule of payments set forth in the recoupment agreement between the City and the sponsor. The method of recoupment shall be determined in the negotiations between the City and the sponsor; for example, recoupment may be based upon water meter size for either water or sewer customers using the facilities or based upon a per lot, tract or parcel assessment, or may be based upon some other means of making the assessment and allocating the costs of the construction. Such contract may also provide that the City, at the expense of the sponsor, will assist in the acquisition of necessary rights-of-way by the exercise of the City's power of eminent domain to the extent the same is allowed by law. The contract may include such other terms and conditions as are approved by the City Council of the City.
A. 
The itemized and verified final costs actually expended by the sponsor for the construction of such sanitary sewer and/or water transmission facilities (including labor and materials, obtaining rights-of-way, permit fees, insurance, bond premiums, legal fees, engineering fees, and other costs essential to the construction of the facilities) shall be filed with the City Clerk, and the City Clerk shall furnish the same to the City Engineer or his designee. The City Engineer or his designee shall examine said costs and make a recommendation to the City Council with regard to the necessity and reasonableness of the same, and as to whether the same should be approved as submitted or adjustments made. The City Council shall then determine the amount of the appropriate costs of construction that shall be subject to the recoupment under this code (the "total recoupment amount" or the "recoupment").
B. 
The area reasonably expected to be served by the water and/or sanitary sewer facilities shall be the FPA of the City, as the City's FPA exists at the time of the making of the recoupment agreement or as the City's FPA may thereafter be amended. The owner of a lot, tract or parcel of land in the City's FPA which receives sanitary sewer or potable water service by a direct connection to a service line that is subject to recoupment or which receives sanitary sewer service or potable water service indirectly by connecting to a service line which directly or indirectly uses a service line that is subject to recoupment shall be assessed the applicable recoupment fee. If the FPA of the City is amended by the IEPA after a recoupment contract is made and entered into pursuant to this code, the City and the sponsor shall enter into an amendment to the recoupment agreement showing the revised boundaries of the City's FPA as the area expected to be served by the recoupment agreement and the same shall be recorded with the recorder of the counties in which the City's FPA is then located. In the event of the abolition of the City's FPA by either the IEPA or the USEPA, then and in that event, the last existing FPA of the City shall be deemed to be the area reasonably expected to be served by sanitary sewer and water distribution facilities constructed pursuant to recoupment agreements made and entered into by the City, unless the City in negotiating the recoupment agreement finds and agrees otherwise.
C. 
Upon verifying the total costs of constructing and installing a public sanitary sewer line and/or public water distribution line which will provide sanitary sewer service and/or potable water service to individual lots, tracts or parcels of land or real estate developments located off of the real estate premises of the sponsor's development in the City's FPA, which sanitary sewer or water distribution improvement is required by the City in order for the sponsor to obtain approval of a subdivision plat or issuance of a building permit for the sponsor's development, and for which capital improvement the sponsor is seeking a recoupment agreement, the City Council shall determine the pro-rata share of that cost that is attributable to the benefit of the sponsor's development and the pro-rata share of that cost that is available to benefit other property owners in the City's FPA who would seek to directly or indirectly connect to the capital improvement in order to develop their property. In order to arrive at the amount of such costs that shall be subject to recoupment, the parties to a recoupment agreement shall subtract from the verified total costs incurred the pro-rata costs attributable to the benefit from the system expected to be received by the sponsor's development (whether the assessment is based upon size of water meter connection, a per lot or parcel or tract assessment, or some other basis). That amount shall be subtracted from the total costs approved by the City that is subject to recoupment to arrive at the amount of the recoupment or total recoupment amount.
Any owner of real property who directly connects into or indirectly uses sewerage facilities to deposit wastewater therein or uses potable water facilities to draw water therefrom which are subject to a recoupment agreement shall pay a recoupment fee, at a user rate to be determined by and set forth in the recoupment agreement. The user rate to be assessed against each benefitted property and charged to the beneficiary served directly or indirectly by the sponsored sanitary sewer and/or potable water improvement as established and set forth in the recoupment agreement will be approved by the City Council, with the advice and recommendations of the City Engineer. Once the user rate is determined and established and the recoupment agreement is made and entered into between the City and the sponsor, any beneficiary owning benefitted property located with the FPA of the City who directly connects to or indirectly uses the sponsored water or sewerage service which is subject to recoupment will be required to pay the recoupment fee until: 1) the term of the recoupment agreement expires, or 2) the sponsor collects the full recoupment the sponsor is due (plus interest due, if applicable), whichever first occurs.
Should the City seek to connect a City-owned sanitary sewer transmission line and/or potable water transmission main to a City sanitary sewer or water distribution main that is subject to one or more recoupment agreements, the City shall be exempt from assessment of recoupment or recapture fees; however, subsequent customers of the City who receive sanitary sewer and/or water service utilizing said line or lines that are subject to one or more recoupment agreements shall not be exempt and shall be required to pay the applicable recoupment fee (including real estate developers/subdividers who seek to obtain sanitary sewer service and/or water service for their subdivision developments). For land developers/subdividers who seek to connect property proposed to be subdivided in this City to a sanitary sewer line or a potable water distribution line that is subject to one or more recoupment agreements and for which a subdivision final plat is requested to be approved by the City, prior to the City enacting an ordinance to approve the final subdivision plat for the subdivision property, the subdivider/developer shall pay the applicable recoupment fee to the City Clerk for each of the proposed lots on the final plat for the subdivision. The subdivider/developer shall provide a copy of the receipt for payment of the applicable recoupment fee to the City Attorney and the City Engineer for their use in making recommendations for final subdivision plat approvals. Where a subdivision is sought to be platted and developed in the City in stages or phases, so that multiple final subdivision plats will be submitted to the City Council for approval (one final subdivision plat for each stage or phase of the subdivision), the applicable recoupment fee will be in the amount of the appropriate assessment for the property comprising each phase or stage. Same shall be paid prior to final plat approval for each phase or stage. Where a subdivision in the City is sought to be enlarged or expanded by final platting of additions to the subdivision, the applicable recoupment fee shall be in the amount of the appropriate assessment for the property comprising each addition and will be required to be paid prior to final plat approval for each addition. Otherwise (that is, except for subdividers/developers or the City), it shall be the owners of individual lots, parcels or tracts of property who derive benefit from service lines and facilities subject to recoupment by depositing sewage in the City's sanitary sewerage system which flows through a line subject to recoupment or which draws potable water off of a City potable water service line that receives water service directly or indirectly from a water main subject to recoupment that shall be subject to the assessment of recoupment fee pursuant to this code.
Nothing contained in this Part 4 shall relieve a property owner from the obligation to pay to the City the City's usual and customary connection fee for connecting to a City-owned sanitary sewer or water transmission main, which connection fee (sometimes referred to as a "tap-in" fee) shall be separate from and payable in addition to the recoupment fee due under sewer and/or water recoupment agreements.
In any area served by two or more sanitary sewer and/or water distribution facilities constructed under separate recoupment agreements with the City, the recoupment charges payable to each sponsor shall be divided proportionately between said sponsors based upon the ratio of the total recoupable amount for each sewerage and/or water facility to the sum of the total recoupable amounts for all of the sewerage facilities or water facilities serving the area which are subject to recoupment.
No sponsor shall earn or be entitled to recoupment fees under a recoupment contract with the City made and entered into pursuant to this Part 4 until after the sewerage facility and/or water facility that is a subject of recoupment has been constructed in compliance with the City's codes and ordinances, inspected by, dedicated to and accepted by the City for public use.
The sponsor under a recoupment agreement may charge such "simple" interest on the "total recoupable amount" as shall be approved by the City Council at the time the parties make and enter into a recoupment agreement. Nothing contained in this section of this Part 4 shall require, however, that the City allow the sponsor to charge interest on the recoupment.
Any person wishing to connect a house service or other individual parcel, tract or lot service line to the City's sanitary sewer or water distribution system will apply in writing to the City Clerk for a permit to make the connection. Upon receiving such application, the City Clerk shall determine if a recoupment fee is required to be paid by the applicant. If a recoupment fee is required, the City Clerk shall not issue a permit to the applicant allowing the applicant to connect to and receive City water and/or sanitary sewer service from a facility subject to recoupment until the City has collected from the applicant the required connection fee and, in addition thereto, the recoupment fee or recoupment fees due under pending recoupment agreements that apply. Such fees shall be collected by the City Clerk and remitted to the sponsor as soon as practicable. The sponsor entitled to such recoupment fee shall keep the City Clerk advised as to their current address and telephone number where they can be reached in order to assist the City Clerk in remitting recoupment payments due them.
A sponsor under a recoupment agreement shall not be entitled to recapture of the construction cost of any portion of a sanitary sewer and/or water service which is located on or within the confines of the property comprising the sponsor's development; except reimbursement will be allowed for oversizing or on the sponsor's premises extensions of facilities not required for the sponsor's development which are primarily designed for off-premises use and benefit.
The right to recoupment shall continue until the total amount of all recoupable costs (plus interest, if applicable) have been recovered by the sponsor or until the expiration of the term of the applicable recoupment agreement, whichever first occurs. The recoupment period shall be for a term of years approved by the City Council, which shall not exceed the term of 30 years from and after the date the sanitary sewer facilities and/or water facilities have been dedicated to and accepted by the City.
All recoupment sanitary sewers and/or water facilities shall be constructed in accordance with the specifications and standards required by the City's codes and ordinances in effect at the time of the construction, and dedicated to the City for public use, after which the same will be owned by, operated and maintained by the City.