| Lenoir City
considers stormwater utility fee
Lenoir City Council has proposed a stormwater utility fee requiring
that residential and business property owners pay a monthly charge
for water runoff.
The fee is a result of an unfunded mandate from the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency and Tennessee Department of
Environment and Conservation to maintain the public stormwater
system.
Lenoir City Administrator Amber Scott said the city will be one of
about 40-50 in the state who have a fee in place for the National
Pollution Discharge Elimination System’s Municipal Separate Storm
Sewer System program.
“If we don’t uphold this program, then they
can come in and fine us,” Scott said.
The stormwater utility fee is $3 for single-family residence, but
for businesses the calculations are based off an Equivalent
Residential Unit.
“If your commercial business is 12,000 square feet, then you would
take that … 2,000 (square feet), divide it into that 12,000, so they
would be paying six units,” Greg Buckner, city stormwater manager,
said. “But then we have a tier program set up to — you hit certain
tiers — zero to 5,000 (square feet) pays this fee, 5,000 (square
feet) to 35,000 (square feet) pays this fee.”
A document provided at the May 8 council meeting shows an ERU tier
system beginning with zero to 5,000 square feet of impervious area
pays $25, while the highest level of more than 2 million square feet
pays $3,000. Buckner said 90 percent of businesses fall within the
first two tiers of 0-5,000 and 5,001-35,000 square feet, with the
second tier paying $50.
“Only a few extend those square footages — like say Walmart,”
Buckner said. “It’s a large building with a large parking lot. They
encompass a lot of impervious surface. Most of your businesses are
smaller like O’Reilly’s and McDonald’s; they’re a lot smaller
footprints. Obviously, they’re going to be paying a lot less money.”
For years Lenoir City has absorbed stormwater maintenance costs out
of the general fund, which Scott said cost $400,000-$500,000
annually, but that cost has become a “burden” for the city.
Funding goes to repairing and maintaining infrastructure. City
officials hope to save money for unforeseen issues.
“Anytime we run a street sweeper on our roads through the street
department, the crews that come around and pick up the brush and
other debris from peoples’ residences in the city, those are debris
that we’re keeping out of the storm system, because whenever debris
such as that gets into the storm system like that it clogs it up and
it doesn’t function the way that it’s supposed to,” Scott said.
The fee system was based off researching other cities in similar
situations, Buckner said. Some tried raising fees for permits to
help offset costs, but he sees a flaw in that approach.
“If building stops ... and you’re not having new construction,
then you have no money coming in,” Buckner said. “So (Municipal
Technical Advisory Service) does not recommend trying to fund it
any way, form or fashion than besides a fee, because even if
construction stops you still have all this infrastructure in
place.”
By making it a utility fee, Buckner said it guarantees the money
can only be used for a specific purpose.
Scott said city officials are trying to be proactive instead of
reactive.
“And again, that’s not putting monies to carry over year to year
so that you’re prepared to have some failures in the future in
the infrastructure,” Buckner said. “I think it would be bad
hindsight to not put some monies back, and if you have (the)
system fail, and you’re looking at trying to pull $150,000 out
of general fund, which sometimes is and sometimes isn’t there.”
City council will vote on a second reading of the fee during a
special called meeting at 1:30 p.m. June 5 at Lenoir City Hall.
Public hearings will begin at 1 p.m. A third reading should
follow at the 7 p.m. June 26 meeting.
“Congress is the one that mandated the certain criteria
municipalities or counties have a stormwater program inside
itself,” Buckner said. “Of course, that was what they called a
unfunded mandate. So they don’t give you any money to do it,
they just tell you how you do it.”
ERU Rates• 0-5,000 sq. ft. — $25 • 5,001-35,000 sq. ft. — $50 • 35,001-70,000 sq. ft. — $100 • 70,001-100,000 sq. ft. — $200 • 100,001-200,000 sq. ft. — $300 • 200,001-300,000 sq. ft. — $400 • 300,001-400,000 sq. ft. — $500 • 400,001-500,000 sq. ft. — $600 • 500,001-600,000 sq. ft. — $700 • 600,001-700,000 sq. ft. — $800 • 700,001-800,000 sq. ft. — $900 • 800,001-900,000 sq. ft. — $1,000 • 900,001-1,500,000 sq. ft. — $1,500 • 1,500,001-2,000,000 sq. ft. — $2,000 • 2,000,001-beyond sq. ft. — $3,000 |
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5/31/17