HomeMy WebLinkAboutSeptic Upgrade Assistance Program
MEMORANDUM
DATE: June 23, 2010
TO: Board of County Commissioners
FROM Tom Anderson, Director
SUBJECT: Supplemental Septic Upgrade Financial Assistance for Property Owners who
may have been Disqualified from the NeighborImpact Loan Program
____________________________________________________________________________
Background:
NeighborImpact (NI) provides low interest cost-deferred loans for south county property owners
in the retrofitting or replacement of failed septic systems with nitrogen-reducing systems. It has
come to the attention of staff that at least one property owner may not have qualified for NI
assistance as the septic repair work on their property was completed prior to loan approval,
which is a strict NI requirement. On May 26, 2010, staff presented this situation to the Board for
discussion and direction on whether the County should provide supplemental assistance in
these cases. However, prior to providing that direction, the Board indicated they would like to
review historical statistics on the number of nitrogen reducing system retrofits/replacements that
have been done in the south county, in order to gain a better sense of the potential financial
impact of providing supplemental assistance.
Discussion Points:
Since the adoption of county ordinance 2008-019, 29 property owners have installed nitrogen
reducing septic systems following the failure of their existing system. The timing of those
installations is broken down as follows:
June, 2008 to December, 2008: 12
January, 2009 to June, 2009: 6
July, 2009 to December, 2009: 7
January, 2010 to June, 2010: 4
None of the property owners associated with these received assistance from NeighborImpact,
although two applied and were denied for reasons other than seeking loan approval after the
work was done. Of the remaining 27, other than the situation noted above, we do not know with
any certainty whether any were preliminarily disqualified or did not apply because they knew
they would not qualify for this reason. It should be noted that this circumstance will be difficult to
verify.
Policy Question:
Should supplemental financial assistance be made available to assist property owners who
have already installed nitrogen reducing systems through private financing—specifically
those who were disqualified from NI assistance because they were not aware that the NI
program required loan approval prior to commencement of work? If so, should the
assistance be available to all 27, to only those within a specified time range, or to only the
one case noted above where the circumstance in question has already been verified?
Requested Board Action:
Provide direction on the policy question noted above.