Marina Coast Proposes Rate Increases; Public, Developers, City are Allied in Opposition

Paula Pelot knocked on 125 doors in Marina’s Preston Park on Oct. 20, before ankle pain kicked in and she quit for the night.

She was canvassing the neighborhood to urge residents to protest proposed rate increases from the Marina Coast Water District.

The deadline to submit protests was Oct. 21 at 7pm, and if more than half of the ratepayers objected, Marina Coast’s increase would be denied. As families scrambled to submit protest letters – “Hurry, you have two minutes left,” said one volunteer collecting protests in a large accordion folder at the Marina Coast board meeting – Pelot was wondering if she’d reached enough people.

The vote came up 39 short.

“I recommend you keep all your records in case we need to go to court, which it sounds like we might need to,” Pelot told the Marina Coast board.

Pelot, along with affected ratepayers from the affordable Manzanita Place apartments to the ritzier Seaside Highlands, takes issue with the water district’s process for allowing ratepayers to protest the rate hikes. The city of Marina and CSU Monterey Bay chimed in with protest letters, citing concerns for future development.

The proposed five-year rates are based on a fee study, completed for Marina Coast in September by Walnut Creek-based Carollo Consultants, that shows the water district will need more cash to keep up its infrastructure.

It’s not clear exactly how much the average household water bill would change under the new rate structure, but the biggest impact would be felt by developers facing higher hookup fees.

Marina Coast contends the average household monthly bill would actually drop, but Juan Uranga, executive director of the Center for Community Advocacy, who represents a Spanish-speaking group of Manzanita Place residents, isn’t convinced.

“This rate increase would impose a great burden,” Uranga told the board. “It might come down to choosing whether to pay rent or the water bill.”

There are also the developers who would bear the brunt of the increase – but only currently metered properties get a vote, so hundreds of protests didn’t count.

Marina Community Partnership Vice President Donald Hofer says additional fees for a proposed hotel at The Dunes at Monterey Bay would total $1.6 million.

The Oct. 21 hearing affects only the Ord Community; a separate rate protest hearing for central Marina happens Nov. 18. The Fort Ord Reuse Authority also gets to weigh in; that meeting is scheduled for Nov. 8.