Chelsea’s trash fee goes up 8 percent this year and the water and sewer bill goes up about $26. Whether either one touches you depends on something the rate sheet states in a single line: owner-occupied units pay no trash fee at all.
The numbers
| Category | FY26 per month | FY27 per month | FY27 per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner-occupied unit | No charge | No charge | No charge |
| Residential property, up to 8 units | $47.75 | $51.57 | $618.85 |
| Commercial unit in a mixed-use building | $225.27 | $243.29 | $2,919.37 |
| Churches, schools and nonprofits | $112.65 | $121.66 | $1,459.81 |
Every category rises 8 percent. Residential buildings with more than eight units, and commercial properties that are not in mixed-use buildings, are not city customers at all and must hire an approved private hauler. Stickers for televisions, computer monitors and white goods stay at $25. Mattress and box spring stickers are $25 for city customers and $40 for people on private collection.
Water and sewer move less. Public Works Commissioner Cate Fox-Lent recommended a 1 percent water increase across all three tiers, and a sewer increase of 1.5 percent in tier one and 2 percent in tiers two and three. Combined, that is 1.25 percent for the smallest households and 1.5 percent for larger multi-family buildings. For a single-family home using 120 hundred cubic feet a year, the standard example on the rate sheet, the annual combined bill goes from $1,964.40 to $1,989.60.
Why
The wholesale cost is the driver. The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority sent Chelsea a preliminary assessment with a 4.9 percent increase for water and 3.4 percent for sewer. The city is passing through about a fifth of that. Fox-Lent credited grants, low-interest loans for capital projects and doing work in-house with absorbing the rest.
On trash she cited “regional labor costs and capacity limitations at landfills and incinerators,” and noted that volumes have leveled off after rising during the pandemic. She urged more recycling.
The part worth noticing
The trash waiver for owner-occupied units is longstanding, and the City Manager’s letter describes continuing it as a practice the administration is choosing to maintain. It is a real benefit and it is not distributed evenly.
Chelsea is a city of renters. The rate sheet waives the fee for owner-occupied units and charges it on residential properties of up to eight units, so in a three-decker where the owner lives on one floor the owner’s own unit is exempt, and in one owned by somebody who lives elsewhere nothing is. Trash charges, like other operating costs, tend to reach tenants through the rent. The households carrying the fee, directly or indirectly, are on average the ones with less.
That is not an argument against the waiver, which encourages owner-occupancy in a city that has been losing it. It is a reason the 8 percent increase lands differently than the headline suggests, in a year when the council has also been arguing about what developers owe toward affordable housing and about an $18.6 million deficit coming in 2031.
The rates took effect with July 2026 billing. The City Manager told the council in April that a public hearing would be held in June to inform residents.