WESTOVER – Westover City Council on Tuesday approved the first reading of an ordinance implementing monthly stormwater management fees for properties within the city’s municipal separate storm sewer system, or MS4.
As written, service charges for a single-family home, defined as residential property occupied by a single family or living unit, will be a flat monthly rate of $7.58, or just under $91 annually.
For all other properties, the charge will be based on land area at a rate of $3.03 per 1,000 square feet of impervious area on the property.
Based on preliminary calculations, the fees would generate approximately $500,000 annually to support the city’s stormwater system.
Attorney Tim Stranko has said the charges, billing process and penalties mirror what’s currently in place in Morgantown.
Nonpayment of stormwater fees would result in the disconnection of public water service through an agreement with the Morgantown Utility Board.
While the city of Westover has a federal requirement to maintain its MS4 spelled out in a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, the city is not collecting fees on the properties draining into the system to support those upkeep efforts.
Public Works Director Jason Stinespring said that fact is evident in the state of the system, which was largely put in place in the 1950s – when at least half of modern-day Westover was undeveloped fields and hillsides.
“What was farmland is now concrete and asphalt,” Stinespring said. “I know nobody likes taxes, but this is one of those things that if it’s needed, people all over the city will see a difference. We could probably replace 90% of our storm drops right now, because they were all brick … There’s a lot of things we need to do, and the advantage of this is it’s dedicated for stormwater. You can’t use it for anything else.”
Councilor Duane Tatar said he recognizes the city’s stormwater infrastructure needs attention, but questioned if this is the proper mechanism to finance that work.
“These are things we didn’t budget for in the beginning. So, we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul now because we didn’t do it before,” Tatar said. “Now we’re expecting everybody to make up for our mistakes in the past. That’s the way I look at it.”
Looking specifically at commercial properties, Tatar said there are large properties, particularly in the WestRidge Development, that would be asked to pay upwards of $1,800 monthly in stormwater fees, noting, “that’s a lot of money.”
“And they have a lot of impervious surface that we’re going to be responsible for making sure the water gets taken out of there,” Stinespring responded. “You have to think about how expensive things are. We’re looking at two jobs right now – the sinkhole on Dunkard and the Walgreens parking lot. That’s probably going to be $500,000.”
Members of council were asked to consider any changes they would like to see to the ordinance – for example, the specific amount of fees to be charged and/or the inclusion of a sunset clause that would end the fee after a defined period without further action – before it returns for a second reading March 2.
The ordinance amending and reenacting Article 930 of city code establishing a stormwater utility and enacting fees and charges for stormwater management will require a public hearing and two more readings of council prior to adoption.
