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Comprehensive Plan Potable Water Sub-Element Community Development Department Indian River County 33 connection to the public water system or construction of a privately owned system, where connection to the public system is not feasible. In those cases where a privately owned system is allowed, the county should require that a franchise be obtained from the county and that any plants and distribution systems be built to county standards and, where deemed appropriate by the county, be dedicated to the county without compensation. The major distribution system issues include service area, system evaluation and maintenance, system expansion to serve areas presently served by private wells, and system expansion to serve new development. Service Area Although the potable water service areas for the county and the City of Vero Beach have been set for many years, recent events have initiated interest in reconsideration of those service areas. Of particular concern are the unincorporated areas and the Town of Indian River Shores served by the City of Vero Beach. Currently, Vero Beach serves those areas outside its corporate limits based on interlocal agreements with the Town of Indian River Shores and the county. While those agreements expire in 2016 and 2017 respectively, the county and/or Town must provide notice to the City by 2012 if either the county or the Town wants to terminate its agreement on the 2017 termination date. In the past, neither the county nor the Town had considered terminating its service area agreement with the City. Recently, however, the City indicated that water and sewer rates would increase significantly in the next few years. Besides the rate increases, the lack of representation in City utilities rate setting is also a concern for unincorporated county and Town residents. Unlike city residents, customers living outside the city limits cannot vote in city council elections and therefore have no representation on utility matters. For the reasons outlined above, the county’s policy should be to maintain a dialogue with the City and the Town regarding utility service areas and to initiate a study to assess the financial feasibility of consolidating utility services or terminating the City of Vero Beach service area agreement in 2017. That study should address the costs and revenues associated with consolidating utility services or absorbing city utility customers in the unincorporated area and the Town into the county system. Potable Water Need and Land Use With the 1990 adoption of the comprehensive plan, the county established its urban service area. The intent of the comprehensive plan is to direct most growth into that area and to provide urban type services to development in that area.