On October 1, City of Tampa utility customers in Virginia Park moved to new water and wastewater rates. For a single-family home using the City's average amount of water, the increase was smaller than in any of the past several years, and more than half of it came from the fixed base charges. Water usage rates went up 11% a year from FY22 through FY25 and 6% in FY26. They now rise 1% a year through FY40. The parts of the bill that will move it from here are a base charge that rises on schedule and a sewer cap the City resets every January. This January, that reset happens while the strictest watering rules this region has seen in years are still in force.
The work under Virginia Park's streets is finished
The money behind these rates comes from PIPES, the $2.9 billion water and sewer funding plan Tampa City Council passed in September 2019 after almost ten years without a utility rate increase. Virginia Park, the 33629 neighborhood between West Palmira Avenue and West Euclid Avenue, west of Dale Mabry and Himes, is one of the places where that money is already in the ground.
The City's project page describes replacing and upgrading about 40,333 linear feet of water main, 2 to 12 inches in diameter, at an estimated cost of $8,677,856 paid from PIPES. In a December 2023 update, the City said crews were using pipe bursting and horizontal directional drilling, trenchless methods that limit how much street gets dug up. Kiewit Infrastructure South Co. held the contract. A June 2025 change order approved by City Council covered Virginia Park paving overage, tree planting and extra sod for restoration.
The City announced the larger Tampa Neighborhoods Project complete on May 28, 2025. Across Virginia Park, East Tampa, MacFarlane Park and Forest Hills, crews installed more than 96,000 feet of new water distribution pipe, replaced lines more than 80 years old and planted more than 230 trees. The City's water project list now shows Virginia Park in Closeout.
The rate schedule that pays for this work keeps going after the construction, with a rate change every October 1 until October 2040.
What changed on October 1, line by line
These are the inside-city rates for a single-family home on the City's published schedules.
| Charge | FY2026, from Oct. 1, 2025 | FY2027, from Oct. 1, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Water base charge, monthly | $8.00 | $9.00 |
| Wastewater base charge, monthly | $8.00 | $9.00 |
| Water, 0 to 5 CCF | $3.55 | $3.59 |
| Water, 6 to 13 CCF | $4.14 | $4.18 |
| Water, 14 to 26 CCF | $6.96 | $7.03 |
| Water, 27 to 46 CCF | $9.28 | $9.37 |
| Water, over 46 CCF | $10.71 | $10.82 |
| Wastewater, per CCF | $5.79 | $5.96 |
One CCF is 748 gallons. The City's Water Department says a single-family home has used an average of 8 CCF a month over the last three years. We ran that average through both schedules. These are our own illustrative numbers, not a City figure, and they leave out taxes, solid waste and any sewer max effect:
- FY2026: $16.00 in base charges, $30.17 for water use and $46.32 for wastewater, for $92.49
- FY2027: $18.00 in base charges, $30.49 for water use and $47.68 for wastewater, for $96.17
That adds up to $3.68 more a month. The base charges account for $2.00 of it, wastewater usage for $1.36 and water usage for $0.32.
Why the fixed charge now leads
Those proportions follow from the PIPES schedule. Usage rates for water are now on their 1% track. Wastewater usage rates rise 3% a year through FY31 and 4% a year after that through FY40. The base charges started in FY20 at $2 each for water and wastewater, and from FY21 through FY34 each one rises $1 a month per year. The City's FY2027 budget repeats the same 1% water schedule.
At $1 a year from today's $9.00, each base charge would reach $16.00 in FY34. Unlike the usage lines, those charges are the same whether a house uses 3 CCF a month or 30. Tampa was one of the last cities in Florida to add a base charge. A Virginia Park household can save water and still see this part of the bill go up every October through FY34.
The City's Customer Assistance Program waives those base charges for qualifying households. Eligibility requires income at or below 50% of area median income, and the City lists an FY2026 limit of $57,350 for a household of four. Participants also have to complete a water conservation requirement and recertify each year. The program is described on the City's PIPES page.
The two numbers a household still moves
Two features of the schedule still respond to how a house uses water.
The first is the jump between tiers. Water costs $3.59 per CCF for the first 5 CCF and $4.18 per CCF from 6 through 13 CCF. From 14 CCF it costs $7.03, about 68% more per unit than the tier below. The City's 8 CCF average is well under that line.
The second is the sewer max, which the City also calls the lawn credit. Wastewater is the biggest line in the example above, and the sewer max is the cap on how many CCF of it a household is billed. The City's sewer max page explains how it is calculated:
- For the first 12 months of a new account, the cap is 3 CCF for each person living in the home. A household of four starts at 12 CCF a month.
- After that, the City recalculates the cap every January from the third-lowest month of water use in the past 24 months. The minimum is 1 CCF.
- The City says water use this calendar year affects the sewer max for the following calendar year.
- Homes with an irrigation meter, a reclaimed water meter or an unmetered well don't get a sewer max. An irrigation meter also adds a third $9.00 monthly base charge, which doesn't apply when the irrigation uses reclaimed water.
That makes January the month that sets the single biggest variable on the bill for the rest of 2027. It will be set during a drought.
The drought order covers the reset
The Southwest Florida Water Management District declared a Modified Phase III "Extreme" water shortage on March 24, 2026, effective April 3. At the time, it cited a 13.7-inch regional rainfall deficit. The order was extended in June. On September 22, the District's Governing Board extended it again through March 31, 2027 with no change to the restrictions. The District reported a 15.4-inch rainfall deficit for the 12 months through August. The same release covered an emergency order allowing Tampa Bay Water to draw more from the Tampa Bypass Canal, also through March 31, 2027. The District put the C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir at 7.87 billion gallons on September 20, about half of capacity. By October 17, Tampa Bay Water's live reservoir page showed 12.18 billion gallons.
The City's water restrictions page has the official text, which is the version to check before you water. As posted, Tampa's rules include:
- Lawn watering day, by the last digit of the address: 0 or 1 on Monday, 2 or 3 on Tuesday, 4 or 5 on Wednesday, 6 or 7 on Thursday, and 8 or 9 on Friday
- Hours: no watering from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. A property under one acre may use either the 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. window or the 8 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. window on its day, and automatic systems need a working rain sensor
- Hand watering: non-turf plants once a day, from 12 a.m. to 8 a.m. or 6 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. Hand watering a lawn is limited to the designated day and hours, and hoses need an automatic shutoff nozzle
- Other limits: car washing at home only on the watering day, no yearly pressure washing for appearance, and decorative fountains limited to four hours a day
- New sod: a 30-day UF/IFAS establishment schedule, with the 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. ban still in effect
- Enforcement: citations can be issued on the first observation, with fines up to $500 and a required court appearance
Irrigation with reclaimed water is generally exempt, though wasteful use is still prohibited.
The January sewer max calculation looks back 24 months. Every month from April 2026 onward in that window was billed under once-a-week watering, and the order runs about three months past the reset. In its September 23 release, the City's Water Department offered free irrigation evaluations, leak detection help and water-saving devices. The sewer max page also lists checking irrigation lines and fixtures for leaks among the ways to lower the cap.
This post is general information, not legal or financial advice. For your own account, check the City's current schedules and contact Tampa's utility department.
If you're thinking about the true monthly cost of owning a Virginia Park home, the water bill is one of the line items we can help you plan for, from the first-year sewer max on a new account to the meter setup on a house you're considering. Reach out to 1 Step Ahead Realty Group and we'll go through the numbers with you. Get Started Today.
