Equivalent Residential Units (ERUs) Currently Available for New Development

On October 3, 2022 the Sandy City Council adopted a moratorium, stopping acceptance of new land use applications that propose new sewer connections, to give sewer system improvements time to catch up with the community’s growth and aging infrastructure.  In March 2023, the City Council adopted Resolution 2023-07 extending the timeline of the moratorium to October 3, 2023.  The City took this action in coordination with the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of ongoing enforcement proceedings under the Clean Water Act. 

On June 5, 2023, City Council approved a consent decree to settle the enforcement proceedings from DEQ and the EPA relating to past permit violations incurred by the City’s wastewater treatment system. The consent decree includes terms that differ from the moratorium that was extended by Resolution 2023-07, the most significant of which is that it allowed up to 300 equivalent residential units (ERUs, a measure of sewer flow equal to that typically generated by a single family detached dwelling) of new connections and additional flows through existing connections. On June 21, 2023, the City Council adopted Resolution 2023-27 which allowed up to 300 ERUs. On November 20, 2023, the City Council adopted Resolution 2023-34, extending the moratorium to June 20, 2024. 

A ‘stress test’ of the wastewater system was performed in 2023 to measure its capacity, followed by analysis of the resulting data and a series of negotiations between the City and regulatory agencies. In their April 2024 approval letter, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Oregon DEQ “recognize(d) the progress that the City has made towards increasing capacity, including but not limited to significant inflow and infiltration reduction.”  Their approval raised the cap on Sandy’s wastewater system from 300 new equivalent residential units (ERUs) to 570 ERUs, with an approved pathway for the City to receive an additional 190 ERUs once further conditions are met.

On June 3, 2024, the City Council adopted Resolution 2024-11 which allows up to 570 ERUs. This resolution has the effect of adopting a new moratorium and repealing the existing moratorium, rather than being an extension of the existing moratorium, because state law requires a new moratorium be adopted in order to make any modifications to the moratorium terms. This new moratorium included an ERU allocation program intended to accommodate all of the developments currently in the City’s development pipeline, i.e. those developments for which land use applications were submitted prior to the enactment of the moratorium on October 3, 2022. The number of ERUs a development can receive has been limited to the number of ERUs that can be calculated directly from the terms of the development approval, where applicable; or when that’s not the case, one ERU per buildable lot created through a land use process. On December 2, 2024, the City Council adopted Resolution 2024-24 which extends the moratorium adopted with Resolution 2024-11 by another six months.

Below is a table showing the number of ERUs currently available for new development.  Please contact our Development Services Department if you have questions.