Poulsbo — The developing Olhava property will soon have something it never had before that will help construction move even faster — water and sewer.

The 215-acre Olhava site is located inside the northwestern corner of the city’s Urban Growth Area and includes a 20-acre parcel that will eventually house an Olympic College branch campus.

At its Wednesday meeting, the city council approved both the creation of a water tower on the Olympic College property and an extension of water and sewer lines to the property. Public Works Supt. Bill Duffy said the extension was necessary now to allow construction work to continue moving forward on the property.

“We need to get the water there and in the pipes to allow Olympic College to have combustible construction. When you start putting up things that burn you need to have adequate fire flow in case it catches fire,” Duffy noted.

The extension is part of an agreement between the city and First Western, Olhava Associates’ financing entity.

In the agreement, the city promised to extend utilities to Olhava and also drill and furnish pumping equipment for the 700-foot west side well. In return, First Western will supply infrastructure for the utilities, such as the approved water tower and standpipe reservoir with a capacity of nearly one million gallons.

But the extension will not only serve Olhava.

Staff recommended — and council agreed — that the city should approve what Duffy called “The full meal deal.”

Under this option, the low bidder Primo Construction will install a total of 12,500 feet of 12-inch water main and 4,900 feet of eight-inch sewer main along State Route 3 to Thompson Road and then on North Viking Avenue to the northern city limits. For a cost of about $1.47 million, the city will have utility infrastructure in place to serve not only Olhava but the rest of its UGA as well.

“By packaging this there’s a scale of economy that’s in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” noted Councilman Ed Stern.

Duffy added that building sewer and water lines in a case like this promises great investment return. The utility hook-up charge for Olympic College alone is estimated at about $85,000, less any credits the college receives for helping build infrastructure.

“So once we get people in and we get them hooked up we get our money back,” he said.

The city is expected to sign the agreement with Primo in the near future with work will begin on the lines beginning shortly thereafter. The project is expected to take about 90 working days once it has begun.