Yukon council amends utility development charges to avoid fees for existing customers

The Yukon City Council unanimously approved Ordinance 14-74, which amends Chapter 114 (Utilities), Article 2 (Rates and Charges), Section 114-41 to clarify water and sewer system development charges, add a new fee for fire-line connections and to exempt certain existing customers from charges intended only for new development.

Council members and staff thanked Mitchell Hort, Jason Beal and Jason Morrill and others for work on the utility-billing changes; the mayor explained the ordinance corrects an oversight so that customers with long-standing accounts are not charged new development fees when updating existing connections. “We only wanted to charge fees for new development that represents real new cost for the city,” a council member said.

The council also approved the emergency clause to have the ordinance take effect immediately; staff said the change is necessary to avoid financial harm to long‑standing customers and noted an example where a customer with an account dating to 1978 had to be relieved of an unintended charge. The ordinance also adds explicit fees for fire-line connections to clarify cost recovery for that service.

The measure passed on a recorded vote with all council members voting in favor. No timelines for formal implementation steps beyond immediate effect under the emergency clause were provided, but staff indicated the clarifying language and fee schedule will be applied in billing and permitting going forward.