Frequently Asked Questions

Wastewater Development Fee is a one-time charge assessed on new development or redevelopment projects to fund capital projects which increase the capacity of the City’s wastewater infrastructure to allow new development and continued growth of the city. 

In simple terms, the fee helps ensure that growth pays for growth, rather than shifting the cost of new infrastructure onto existing residents and ratepayers.

These fees directly fund growth-driven capital improvements such as treatment plant expansions, interceptor upgrades (Collection lines equal to or greater than 12 inches), and major lift stations. 

The fee does not fund routine maintenance, repairs, or like-for-like replacement of existing infrastructure.

No.

The Wastewater Development Fee is a one-time charge on new development and does not increase monthly water or sewer bills for existing customers.

By using this fee to fund capacity improvements, the City avoids shifting the cost of growth onto current residents and ratepayers.

Bentonville’s rapid growth is exceeding the capacity of the existing wastewater system, and new development is being delayed because of that. Timely investment and improvements are needed to maintain service standards and allow the City to grow. The fee ensures that new growth pays its fair and proportional share of the wastewater system improvements due to the increased demand. This helps the city avoid shifting the cost to existing residents and ratepayers. 

Funds will be used exclusively to repay debt, including interest, associated with costs incurred by the City to expand the capacity of the wastewater system sewer interceptors, including planning, engineering, acquisition, and construction of capital improvements. 

Developers, builders, and property owners undertaking new construction, reconstruction, or changes in use that cause an increase in flow to the wastewater system. 

The Wastewater Development Fee will be collected prior to a scheduled City Pre-Construction meeting for Preliminary Plats and Large Scale Development projects, or prior to permit issuance for all other permit types. The City will have substantial investment into the Capital Projects to allow development to get to this point and start construction. Collecting the fee at this time prevents the City from carrying unnecessary interest.  

The fee is based on projected wastewater demand created by the development, expressed in terms of Equivalent Residential Units (ERU). The current recommendation for the initial fee is $7,867 per ERU. 

Residential  

All residential dwelling units will be equal to one ERU. This applies to each unit in all residential development types throughout the city.  

Commercial  

Commercial developments will be converted to ERU’s based on their projected design flow and charged accordingly.. Commercial customers can consult the Bentonville Water Utilities Sewer Capacity Study Guidelines for detailed methodology.  

Example #1: 84 Lot Preliminary Plat  

Net ERU’s = Proposed ERUs (84) – Existing ERUs (0) = 84 ERU’s 

Wastewater Development Fee = Net ERUs (84) x $7867/ERU = $660,828 

Example #2: 61 Unit Townhome Development 

Net ERUs = Proposed ERUs (61) – Existing ERUs (6) = 55 ERUs 

Wastewater Development Fee = Net ERUs (55) x $7867/ERU = $432,685 

Example #3: Restaurant with 120 seats 

Average Daily Flow from ADH Appendix B =  

120 seats x 40 gpd/seat + 30 employee-shifts x 15 gpd/employee/shift = 5250 gpd 

Commercial Development ERUs = 5250 gpd / 264 gpd/ERU = 19.89 ERUs 

Net ERU’s = Proposed ERUs (19.89) – Existing ERUs (0) = 19.89 ERUs 

Wastewater Development Fee = Net ERUs (19.89) x $7867/ERU = $156,474.63 

Utility bonds and loans are commonly used to fund major wastewater infrastructure projects. These obligations are typically repaid through utility rates, meaning existing customers pay the cost through higher monthly bills.

Another option would be General Obligation Bonds, which would require an increase in sales tax.

The Wastewater Development Fee provides a way to fund needed capacity improvements without increasing utility rates or sales taxes, while ensuring that costs are allocated proportionally to new development.

Each residential unit in the City of Bentonville will be one (1) ERU. This method of fee calculation is consistent with the sizing requirements that the City of Bentonville must follow for the interceptor design. The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) requires all sewer studies and design flow calculations to assess 2.64 people per household for all residential unit types. City Staff have previously proposed using different population values for single family versus multifamily housing, but the data was not accepted by ADH.  

The timeline for development to occur in a particular basin is dependent on the approval of the development fee ordinance and the Revenue Bond Line of Credit ordinance. If these ordinances are approved by our City Council, BWU will move forward with design, construction, and contract execution 

Once a capital project has been approved by all reviewing agencies and is under construction, private development, dependent on the capacity provided by those upgrades, can begin to move forward. This will allow private development a parallel path to start construction alongside the sewer interceptor upgrades in an effort to minimize time to market. Once available, a detailed construction schedule will be provided.  Please visit the capital update page for information updated weekly.  

Bentonville Water Utilities provides an up-to-date status of all current capital projects on their website under the “Capital Improvements” link. This document will be updated frequently as projects progress through design and construction. Questions on project status can always be directed to the BWU capital team by emailing BWUCapital@bentonvillear.com or calling 479-271-3140. Or visiting the Capital update.  

The Memorandum of Understanding will be made available prior to the ordinance going into effect. The general understanding of the agreement is that the developer understands the risk of moving forward with construction prior to the interceptor construction being complete. It will further state that no domestic water meters will be set or installed until there is an appropriate means of wastewater disposal.  

In some cases, yes. The capital improvements identified and proposed to be financed and constructed with this plan are only on the interceptor lines (12-inch and larger). The cost of smaller collection mains outside of this scope was not accounted for in the development of the proposed fee. Developers will remain responsible for determining capacity from their point of connection to the interceptor lines and completing the upgrades required to serve their development, if any. 

The Planned Facility/Growth Approach (Section 5.3, page 8 of UFS Wastewater Development Fee Report) – developers pay for what is deemed their proportional share. If the developer pays this fee, they would not need to also do the incremental cost pricing approach. 

The only infrastructure costs that were included in the proposed fee are the major sewer interceptor lines 12” and larger, for which we have studied. The smaller distribution lines were not included in our sewer study. Including the smaller line portions that will ultimately connect new development to the interceptor lines would increase this fee.  

The City of Bentonville does not intend to suspend current impact fees.  

The interceptor lines identified in the Capital Improvement Plan and financed with the fee are being replaced or constructed due to the lack of capacity or service availability, according to the growth strategies outlined in the Plan Bentonville’s Future Land Use Plan. 

The City of Bentonville will only use Development Fees for the costs associated with increasing capacity of the Interceptor Mains identified in the Capital Plan. The like-for-like replacement cost has been removed from the overall project cost, and only development fee eligible (upsize) cost was used to calculate the fee. The cost breakdown is further explained in Section 7.1 Interceptor Improvements within UFS’s Wastewater Development Fee Report.