AGENDA #4e

MEMORANDUM

TO:

Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager

FROM:

Butch Kasiah, Director of Parks & Recreation

Bill Webster, Assistant Director of Parks & Recreation

SUBJECT:

Dedication of a Sewer Easement Adjacent to Morgan Creek to the Orange Water and Sewer Authority

DATE:

June 11, 2007

PURPOSE

The attached resolution would authorize the Town Manager to execute an agreement for a sewer easement on Town property. The easement would be adjacent to Morgan Creek, and would allow the Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) to upgrade its Morgan Creek Interceptor Sewer Line.

BACKGROUND

OWASA has a long-term goal of upgrading older gravity flow sewer lines. A portion of the Morgan Creek Interceptor Sewer has already been upgraded.

DISCUSSION

OWASA currently has a 30-foot wide sewer easement along about 300 feet of Town property. The easement is located south of Fordham Boulevard, west of Highway 15-501, north of Morgan Creek, and west of Kingwood Apartments.

OWASA proposes to replace the existing 18 inch pipe with a new 30 inch sewer line. In order to accomplish that goal, they will need to add 15 feet to their existing easement. Once the new line is in place, OWASA will abandon the existing line and 15 feet of the old easement. The end result would be almost the same size easement area, a new larger sewer line, and about 15 feet of additional tree removal in some locations.

Morgan Creek Preserve: The proposed easement would be located within the Town’s 92 acre Morgan Creek Preserve. We believe that the sewer easement is permissible under terms of the preserve’s conservation easement agreement with the Botanical Garden Foundation. The agreement gives the Town the right to extend public utilities within the Morgan Creek Preserve, if no other reasonable alternatives exist, and if the Council determines that such utility extensions meet a significant public purpose.

RECOMMENDATION

Manager’s Recommendation: That the Council adopt the following resolution authorizing the Manager to execute an easement agreement that would grant to OWASA a sewer easement as described in the attached proposal from OWASA.

ATTACHMENT

  1. May 24, 2007 proposal from OWASA (p. 4).