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<br />REPORT <br /> <br />8A <br />Page 1 <br /> <br />To the Honorable Mayor and City Council <br />From the Ci Mana er <br /> <br />December8,2008 <br /> <br />SUBJECT <br />Approval of Landscapelnigation Water Rates <br /> <br />RECOMMENDATION <br />1. Adopt a resolution amending Section 3 of the Rules and Regulations of the <br />Redwood City Water Department (Public Works Services Department) related to <br />water rates. <br />2. Adopt a resofution establishing the guiding principles for landscape irrigation water <br />rates and the policy and procedure for calculating and implementing water use <br />budgets for landscape irrigation customers. <br /> <br />BACKGROUND <br />The City of Redwood City implemented a Water Use Allocation Program (WUAP) for <br />Redwood City resrdential customers in 2001. The WUAP provides a fair and equitable <br />way to distribute water during possible future droughts by taking into consideration <br />individual customer needs and their conservation efforts. The WUAP uses factors such <br />as weather data. the number of people in a household. the size and type of landscape. <br />size of swimming pool, and any other special water needs to calculate "water use <br />budgets. It <br /> <br />In March 2008, City Council authorized the purchase of automatic meter reading , <br />equipment that would allow staff to accurately and fairly create water use budgets for <br />customers with dedicated landscape irrigation meters. This was one of many steps to <br />complete a project known to staff as the "Budget-Based Rates Project (BBRP)." Similar <br />to residential accounts, water use budgets witt be calculated for landscape irrigation <br />sites using specific site characteristics such as landscape area and landscape type, and <br />will use factors such as actual weather conditions for that period. The budgets are <br />calculated to reflect the ideal amount of water to be applied to the site to maintain a <br />healthy, vibrant landscape. Staff has proposed to implement the BBRP and begin <br />monthly billing for landscape irrigation accounts using a proposed landscape irrigation <br />rate structure consisting of three tiers. <br /> <br />In October 2008, and folJowing the implementation of the automatic meter reading <br />equipment, the City began reading and billing all of its irrigation customers on a monthly <br />basis. Prior to that, the City read about half of such meters on a monthly basis and the <br />other half on a bimonthly basis (every two months). Converting from a bimonthly to a <br />monthly cycle has improved the frequency of information to customers who will be <br />impacted by the proposed irrigation rates. Staff has also identified a number of large <br />irrigation customers that have multiple irrigation meters at a specific site. Starting in <br />January 2009, the City will sum water use from all individual irrigation meters and <br />provide one consolidated water bill for that site to hetp them better monitor water use. <br /> <br />tn January 2009, staff is proposing to implement a new landscape customer class with a <br />new landscape irrigation water rate structure. The current water rate structure does not <br />