A. The Town shall include in any annexation, subdivision, development or similar agreements, provisions addressing whether or not there is any commitment on behalf of the Town to provide water or sewer service. Any provision affirmatively providing a commitment for water or sewer service shall limit the level of service to the amount of water dedicated by the developer and/or acquired by the Town for the developer’s benefit with cash-in-lieu payments;

B. At the time of annexation, the annexor shall elect to do one (1) or more of the following:

The Town may, in its discretion, and using the criteria set forth in this chapter, consider and accept for dedication water rights offered by the annexor which are not appurtenant to the property to be annexed. The Town shall determine whether any such water rights in subsections (B)(1) and/or (2) of this section offered to the Town for dedication will be accepted, rejected or accepted in part by the Town for dedication;

C. In the event the annexor elects not to offer for dedication to the Town all water rights appurtenant to the property to be annexed, the Town shall provide in the annexation, subdivision, development and other similar agreements that:

D. The Town shall evaluate any water rights offered to the Town for dedication. The Town shall determine whether said water rights are to be accepted based upon the following criteria:

For water rights acceptable to the Town for dedication, raw water credits shall be determined by the Town, which determination shall include use of the criteria set forth in PMC 9.30.040 and this subsection;

E. The Town reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to accept, reject or accept in part any water rights proposed for dedication to the Town. If the Town determines that the water rights proposed for dedication to the Town are unacceptable to the Town, or insufficient to comply with the dedication requirements, the Town may, in its sole discretion, determine whether the Town will accept cash in lieu of dedication to satisfy all or part of the dedication requirement. If the Town elects to accept cash in lieu of dedication, the amount of cash shall be equal to the current fair market value of water rights required to satisfy the dedication requirement, determined as of the date of actual payment by the annexor, developer or owner, which value shall include any transaction costs incurred or to be incurred by the Town in acquiring additional water rights for the Town’s system. All determinations required by this section shall be made by the Town in its sole judgment;

F. No plat shall be approved by the Town unless sufficient water rights dedications and/or cash-in-lieu payments have been accepted by the Town to provide sufficient water supply for the demands projected for all proposed uses within the platted area;

G. No extension of water service, including any new or additional water service, shall be furnished until there has been full compliance with the provisions of this chapter, unless the Town Council determines by resolution or written agreement that one (1) or more of the exceptions set forth in PMC 9.30.070 apply;

H. The Town reserves the right to review actual water usage within a project at a point in time after water usage has been established to confirm the adequacy of the water demand projections made by the annexor, developer or owner, and to require additional water rights dedication and/or cash-in-lieu payments based on actual water usage;

I. All costs and expenses related to the dedication of water rights to the Town shall be borne by the person required to dedicate water rights to the Town pursuant to this chapter;

J. Any decision or recommendation made by the Town Manager or other Town agent or designee under any delegation of authority or responsibility contained in this chapter or otherwise relating to water rights dedication shall be submitted to the Town Council for determination or ratification, as the case may be. No such decision or recommendation shall be of any force or effect until finally determined or ratified by the Town Council by ordinance, resolution or approval of a written agreement;

K. In the event the water rights offered to the Town for dedication provide raw water credits in excess of those required by this policy, the annexor, developer or owner shall offer any excess water rights for sale to the Town at current fair market value. The Town may enter into a written agreement to purchase all or part of any such excess water rights and, in the event the Town does not then purchase all of such excess water rights, the Town may require the annexor, developer or owner to grant to the Town a right of first refusal to purchase such excess water rights in the future, pursuant to the provisions of PMC 9.30.100;

L. The Town shall not require that groundwater wells or their appurtenant water rights be offered to the Town for dedication or purchase, nor shall the Town provide any raw water credits for such structures or water rights;

M. All determinations provided for herein shall be made by the Town in the exercise of its reasonable judgment and shall be consistent with this chapter;

N. All dedications of water rights to the Town hereunder shall be effected by delivering to the Town sufficient warranty deeds, or stock certificates with appropriate stock assignments as is appropriate to the particular transaction. All title documents shall be subject to approval by the Town’s attorneys. No water rights dedication shall be considered completed until the Town has accepted sufficient documents transferring title to the Town. (Ord. 561 §1, 2007; Amended Ord. 685 §15, 2015; Amended Ord. 757 §2, 2019)