The latest water rate hike could be the lowest the city has seen in a decade.
The Department of Environmental Protection is proposing that the City Water Board raise fees by 3.24 percent, which would be 34 percent lower than expected.
The DEP also recommended freezing the minimum charge for customers who use less than 100 gallons of water a day.
The rate would stay flat at $1.27 per day for about one-quarter of all single-family homeowners, many of them seniors.
After public hearings this spring, the water board's new rates will go into affect in July.