Counselors: City requires that water, sewer, drainage and street infrastructure be completed before the city council accepts final plats and the final plat is filed of record. Those facilities are tested prior to acceptance by the city. Increasingly, contractors who come in to install electric, gas and telephone service after the city has accepted the final plat are boring into sewer lines or water lines, and in some cases literally knocking over or displacing sewer risers, and causing substantial damage. The city has recently adopted a permitting process that requires posting a bond, but it is often difficult to know what contractor caused the damage, particularly where the damage is from boring into a water or sewer line and the damage does not become apparent until a sink hole develops or mud in the sewer is traced back to an area. The developer does not take responsibility for any damage because he/she argues that the water and sewer now belong to the city. The city is considering how to best address this issue. One thought is to require that all infrastructure be installed, tested and accepted before the city accepts any final plat. Developers will not like that idea because sometimes electric, gas or telephone can be operating months behind schedule. Another thought is to require the developer file a bond under a process that will provide for subsequent testing after completion of all infrastructure and the bod would guarantee that all infrastructure still passes inspection and is operational. The amount of the bond would vary depending upon the type of development and the number of lots, anticipated connections and/or other criteria. I would appreciate hearing how other cities have dealt with this issue. I would also appreciate any thoughts on the creation of a separate bonding and subsequent inspection process. Thank you for your collective insight. Jonathan E. Miller City Attorney City of Mustang 1501 N. Mustang Road Mustang, Oklahoma 73064 Telephone: (405) 376-7746 Facsimile: (405) 376-7721 This email is sent by the City Attorney and may contain information that is privileged or confidential. If you received this email in error, please notify the sender by reply email and delete the email and any attachments. If you are a and officer, employee or agent of the City of Mustang, you should not share this email with others. Sharing this email may result in a loss of the attorney-client privilege.