Redwood City water bills to rise

Written protests by 10,913 residents could have stopped the vote under Proposition 218, but the margin was not met.

Fixed-rate service charge prices are going up roughly 30% for single and multifamily residences, but combined with only a 1% increase in prices for water use, which is typically over half of final bill calculations, single-family customers should plan for a 12% increase, or $18.52 for bimonthly bills on average, Chapel said.

Chapel pinned the impetus for the proposed increase on Redwood City water supplier San Francisco Regional Water System and its Public Utilities Commission, which has raised its own water prices by 27% in the last two years.

Councilmembers, including Kaia Eakin, expressed similar sentiments that the raise was an unfortunate necessity based on Redwood City’s own water infrastructure and purchasing prices.

But many residents feel that the fixed-rate increase makes their own efforts to conserve water and lower costs ineffective.

“That rate structure is particularly punitive to those who are trying to save water,” Redwood City resident Chris Robell said during City Council public comment. “It’s important that whatever pressure we can exert on these outside agencies to contain their cost and then contain the city’s cost. … I don’t think residents are meant to be ATM machines with no fee limits.”

Councilmember Chris Sturken encouraged residents to participate in Redwood City’s Utility Rate Bill Assistances program — which provides $40 for bimonthly bills — if they needed help with the upcoming increases and fell in the 50% median income category for San Mateo County.

“[The San Fransisco Public Utility Commission] is experiencing higher debt, higher personnel costs and higher infrastructure costs,” he said as reasoning for the increasing bills. “What residents can do … is to continue conserving to offset the increas[ing] costs of their water bill and take advantage of our utility rate bill assistances program.”

Councilmembers and Chapel discussed raising the utility assistance program to $25 a month or $50 bimonthly in light of the water bill increases.

About 40% of Redwood City’s water enterprise fund, which is funded solely by customers, currently goes to the direct purchase of water — the rest goes into rebuilding aging infrastructure, operations and maintenance of the water system, and project funding, Chapel said.

Even with the increases, Redwood City is solidly in the middle of neighboring cities’ water prices, a fact that Councilmember Diane Howard said was important to her.

“Even with our proposal, we’re still staying in the middle and I hope it stays that way,” she said.

But while Redwood City might be comparatively in the middle, residents are still finding it difficult to meet cost of living and find the increase in water bills to be an imposition, resident Cindy Asrir said in an email statement.

“Redwood city is becoming too expensive to live in, especially for working families or folks on a limited income. Is this what we want? To drive out all the residents and families and become an unrecognizable city that only the rich can afford?” the statement read. “Remember we voted you in to represent the people, not only the rich, the companies and the special interests. As we voted you in, we can vote you out.”

At current rates, reserves for the water enterprise fund will meet the balance at net 0 during the 2025-26 fiscal year and dip below the reserve fund moving beyond that.

For single-family and residential homes, the bimonthly service charge for water usage was previously $59.04. Now, services charges for single-family homes will be $76.72 in the 2023-24 fiscal year and $82.09 in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Multifamily home services charges will now be based on water meter size based on the proposal, which “is more in line with industry standards and other water providers in the area,” Chapel said.

For the 2023-24 fiscal year, multifamily homes with five-eighths-inch meters will be charged $76.22, three-fourths-inch meters $105.30, 1-inch meters $162.46, 1 1/2 inch meters $305.38 and 2-inch meters $476.88 in service fees. For the 2024-25 fiscal year, multifamily homes with five-eighths-inch meters will be charged $82.09, three-fourths-inch meters $112.67, 1-inch meters $173.83, 1 1/2 inch meters $326.76 and 2-inch meters $510.26 in service fees.

By contrast, multifamily residences will be charged to use water at a uniform rate of $7.92 for the 2023-24 fiscal year and $8.47 for the 2024-25 fiscal year under the new proposal.

Single-family residences will remain under a tier system for water usage, but the tier categories would change. Previously, tier one (0-8 water units) would cost $6.13, tier two (9-20 water units) would cost $7.35, tier three (21-40 water units) would cost $10.20 and tier four (41+ water units) would cost $13.45.

For the 2023-24 fiscal year, tier one (0-10 water units) will cost $6.45, tier two (11-14 water units) will cost $7.37, tier three (15-20 water units) will cost $9.63 and tier four (21+ water units) will cost $14.57. For the 2024-25 fiscal year, tier one (0-10 water units) will cost $6.90, tier two (11-14 water units) will cost $7.89, tier three (15-20 water units) will cost $10.30 and tier four (21+ water units) will cost $15.59.

Commercial water bills will stay based on meter size, with five-eighths-inch meters previously $29.52 and now $38.36 for the 2023-24 fiscal year and $41.05 for the 2024-25 fiscal year. One-inch meters were previously $73.80 and are now $81.23 and $86.92, respectively, and 2-inch meters, which were previously $236.16, are now $238.44 and $244.13, respectively.