Why A Storm Water Utility

The Utility was formed in response to growing drainage problems stemming from increasing levels of development within the City. These problems have had a direct effect on the City’s storm water drainage system and have demonstrated the need for proper planning, design, construction, and maintenance of the existing and future contributing storm water drainage systems. Further, as the City has grown, these effects have resulted in increased demands on the City’s limited resources (personnel and capital).

In creating the Utility, the City legislated that the Utility shall be operated as a public utility. The Utility shall provide and maintain open drainage ways, storm sewers, drains and other storm water drainage facilities, equipment and appurtenances so as to provide a complete and adequate system of storm water drainage for the city and it inhabitants.

The City defined those facilities which would be the responsibility of the Utility as all public storm water drainage facilities located on City-own land and in public rights-of-way and easements, such as, but not necessarily limited to:

• Open drainage ways owned by the City or located in public rights-of-way or drainage easements in the City;

• Piped drainage systems and their related appurtenances which have been designed and constructed expressly for use by the general public;

• Bridges on public streets;

• Roadside drainage ditches within the public rights-of-way along streets; and

• Flood control facilities (levees, dikes, overflow channels, detention basins, groundwater recharge basins, etc.) that have been designed and constructed expressly for use by the general public.

 

Facilities which are not the responsibility of the Utility are, but not necessarily limited to:

• Improvements of both public and private storm water drainage facilities through or immediately adjacent to new developments (these shall remain the responsibility of the developers);

• Private parking lot storm drains;

• Roof, footing, and area drains;

• Drains not designed and constructed for use by the general public;

• Open drainage swales on private property for which no public easement of record has been granted; and

• Access drive culverts.

Storm Water Fees

In creating the Utility, the City declared its intention to establish and impose just and equitable charges on storm water drainage utility users. These charges (user fees) are used to pay the costs directly associated with operating and maintaining the Utility.

The main factor in contributing storm water runoff from a particular property is the amount of impervious surface area on that property. Impervious surfaces are those surfaces with a high degree of imperviousness, such as a building roof, parking lot (compacted dirt and gravel lots included), driveway, sidewalk, etc.

Based on the information obtained by the City Engineers, the typical residential property contains 2,530 sq. ft. (square feet) of impervious surface area. The units to be used in determining the appropriate user fee is the ERU (Equivalent Residential Unit). One ERU is 2,530 sq. ft. of impervious surface area. Therefore, all single-family residential properties have, by definition, an ERU rating of 1.0 ERU. The calculation of the ERU rating for all non-residential properties is straight-forward:

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ERU Rating = Property Impervious Surface Area (in sq. ft.)/2,530 sq. ft. per ERU

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As an example, a non-residential property with 2,530 sq. ft. of impervious area would have an ERU rating of 1.0.

2,530 sq. ft. impervious surface area/2,530 sq. ft. per ERU = 1.0 ERU

A similar type property with 25,300 sq. ft. of impervious surface area would have an ERU rating of 10.0.

25,300 sq. ft. impervious surface area/2,530 sq. ft. per ERU = 10.0 ERUs