Castaic Lake Water Agency Backs More Than Doubling Its Hookup Fees : Budget: The rates, to be voted upon April 29 to offset expected state cuts, would primarily affect developers.

The Castaic Lake Water Agency has moved toward more than doubling hookup fees for new construction in anticipation of state budget cuts.

The new fees would range from $6,806 to $9,175, an increase of 120% to 152%, depending on the distances involved in piping in the water, said Robert Sagehorn, the agency’s general manager.

Although any property owner in the Santa Clarita Valley who requests a hookup would be affected, the new fees would primarily affect developers.

A spokesman for the Building Industry Assn. said Thursday that the group is lobbying Gov. Pete Wilson in an effort to dissuade him from making budget cuts that would affect 1,500 water and sewer districts statewide, including the Castaic Lake agency.

“We’re already being hit with every fee there is,” association spokesman Bill Peardon said. “With the recession, this is just the wrong time to do it.”

To make up for an anticipated shortfall of $6.5 million in fiscal year 1992-93, the Castaic Lake Water Agency late Wednesday tentatively adopted the new fees.

The agency will hold a public hearing April 29, but it is expected to approve the increases immediately afterward, Sagehorn said.

The new fees would go into effect July 1.

In the event that the state cutbacks are not made, the water agency would refund the increases, Sagehorn said.

A spokeswoman for Newhall Land & Farming Co., the area’s largest developer, called the increases hefty and said the company “wants to make sure they’re distributed equitably between new and existing residents.”

Sagehorn said it is possible that the agency will have to raise residents’ water rates next year if the increase in hookup fees fails to make up for the anticipated shortfall in state funds.

Growth has slowed in the Santa Clarita Valley, resulting in fewer hookups for new construction, he said. For instance, the agency collected only $1.1 million in hookup fees in fiscal year 1990-91 compared with $4.4 million the year before, he said.

So far this fiscal year, the agency has collected $2.6 million, he said.

The agency needs the money to help pay off $132 million in debts that it incurred last year to fund its capital improvement program.

Among the agency’s projects is the $34.5-million Rio Vista water treatment plant in Santa Clarita.

Construction of the plant began in December; it is scheduled to be completed by the end of 1994.

Since 1978, the agency has been receiving a thousandth of the property tax revenues collected in Los Angeles County, Sagehorn said.

The governor is now proposing to reallocate $347 million, including the Castaic agency’s funds, because of the state budget crunch.