Outrageous Water Meter Upgrade Costs – Any Solutions?

[Roman Romaniuk]

Hello everyone,

I’m currently building 2 ADUs in Vista in a new 2-story building (each floor is a separate 2 bed, 2 bath unit, 750 sq ft each).

I already have 4 units on this lot, and the water main is a 5/8”. My engineer calculated that I need to increase the main to a 1.5” for the new units. I contacted the Vista Irrigation District and got these estimates:

• Upsizing from a 5/8” meter to a 1” meter: ~$24,000

• Upsizing from a 5/8” meter to a 1.5” meter: ~$54,000

This seems outrageous to me. The material cost difference between 1” and 1.5” is minor, so it feels like they’re charging whatever they want because they know you’re locked in with no alternative options.

Has anyone dealt with this before? Any ideas on how to negotiate this or lower the cost? My total construction cost is around $300k, so spending nearly 1/6 of that just to upgrade water service seems crazy.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Matt Devincenzo]

These costs aren't to cover material costs, these are 'impact fees' essentially. Meters are assigned a cost based upon the estimated charge for pipelines, water treatment plants, valves, pumps etc. Those fees are reviewed and approved by the CPUC, and are based on actual costs. Your best bet is to 1) understand what the flow/EDU threshold is for a given meter size 2) determine ways to lower those demands to a lower threshold. 

Often one I see on small projects like this is that fire flow on sprinklers could be the high demand user. In City of SD they allow for a residential shut off valve to exclude this flow from the sizing. If that flow takes you from a 1" to a 1.5", then you can keep your design and save $30K by spending about $3-5K on the necessary plumbing change. 

Also a 5/8" for four units seems undersized. I wouldn't be surprised if your meter is undersized and part of the cost is capturing the additional cost for the demand that those four units have on the system. A little known issue is that because of all the water saving improvements of the last 30 years, water providers actually have to charge more for facilities. That's because the same facilities are now selling less water to customers, but the expenses are the same. So to cover the deficit they have to charge higher fees for facilities, as well as water rates to customers. 

I have a client that has a four unit in City of SD and we had this exact conversation three months ago when I told him his meter fees for a 1.5" would run over $70K. He designed around what would work with a new 1" in addition to keeping the old units on the existing 3/4".