Who pays for a new commercial water service in Mesa? Main extension, meters and easements under City Code 8-10-3 and 8-10-4

Section 8-10-4(A) sets the minimum for service. Every applicant and property must, "as a minimum requirement," extend an eight inch Distribution Main, or the size the Director determines, along the entire Frontage of the parcel if one is not already there, and along every frontage if the parcel has more than one. Applicants must also extend and loop transmission mains as needed under the Water Master Plan, all to engineering standards. The Director can reduce the frontage requirement when the extension is not needed to serve customers beyond the property.

Three more subsections shape the cost and the paperwork:

• Ownership (B). Every extension of the system becomes city property. Title to facilities built by others must be tendered to the city before service starts, and the city's acceptance is in its sole discretion, subject to proof of construction to engineering standards.
• Easements (C). The customer provides right-of-way or utility easements at no cost, in a form the city accepts, for the system and for service laterals on the customer's property up to the point of delivery, generally the outlet side of the metering equipment.
• Access and pressure (D, E). Customers grant the city a license over their property to read meters, connect, disconnect, operate and replace the system. The city can also require the customer to supply equipment, including on-site storage, at the customer's expense to limit flow and pressure swings the customer's operations cause.

Section 8-10-3 covers who touches what. Under (C), all system connections and meter settings are made by the city on distribution mains, and repairs on mains, meters, service laterals to the meter, check valves and fire hydrants are made by the Department or as the Director approves. Service comes only from distribution mains in a right-of-way or utility easement the Department accepts, in the right pressure zone, and never from transmission mains. Under (F), the city may require a written agreement before service, for example for a system extension or unusual circumstances.

• Distribution main. The street-level water main that serves individual properties.
• Frontage. The side of the parcel that faces a street or other public way.
• Point of delivery. Generally the outlet side of the metering equipment, where city responsibility ends.
• Service lateral to the meter. The line from the main to the meter, which the Department repairs.

Owners and developers of new commercial buildings, and tenants or contractors who need a larger or additional meter. A plumber's own scope usually starts at the outlet side of the meter, but the plumbing plan set has to match what the city will serve. Capacity charges for the connection are a separate topic in 8-10-13.

A new restaurant on a parcel with no main in front. The applicant builds the eight inch main along the frontage to engineering standards, then transfers title. The city accepts it, taps it and sets the meter. The plumber then connects at the outlet side of the meter.

A tenant needs a larger meter. The meter is set by the city, and a larger one is a capacity question. See 8-10-13 for how upsizing is charged.

The edge case. A property is on a private strip that is not a public easement. Service must come from a main in a right-of-way or an easement the Department accepts, so the owner may have to grant one before the city will serve.

1. 1Find out where the nearest distribution main is and whether it runs along every frontage of the parcel.
2. 2If it does not, plan the eight inch extension, the loop requirement and the easements with the engineer.
3. 3Plan the right-of-way permit and street restoration for work in the public way, including the pavement cut rules.
4. 4Put the backflow assemblies on the plans, as 8-1-6 requires.
5. 5Ask the Department whether a written service agreement applies under 8-10-3(F).

• "I can hire a contractor to tap the main." Connections and meter setting belong to the city.
• "The extension stays mine." It becomes city property once accepted.
• "The service line is my repair." The line to the meter is the Department's to repair.
• "Any main will do." Service must come from a distribution main, not a transmission main.