A Solution to the Millions Needed for LG’s Drainage Woes: A Stormwater Fee?

La Grange City Council discussed a new way to fund much-needed drainage improvements in the City – a stormwater utility fee.

City Manager Jack Thompson brought in the engineering firm Strand Associates to conduct a stormwater master plan. Stormwater engineer Mark Schubak of Strand Associates presented that plan at the City Council meeting Monday night, Jan. 12.

“When it rains, it generates runoff, stormwater runoff,” Schubak said. “If it’s previous surfaces like grass surfaces or lawns, that allows rainfall to infiltrate, to percolate, and there’s less runoff to manage. So the thinking here is that properties that have high intensity or high levels of impervious surface pay a higher storm utility fee.”

The City received more than $4.5 million in federal hazard mitigation grant funds to improve drainage in town. BEFCO Engineering is currently working on plans for four drainage projects, which will begin construction this year. BEFCO identified four other drainage improvement projects that have not been funded. Construction costs for those is an estimated $8.3 million. Thompson said the City currently has no way to pay for them.

The stormwater utility fee, he said, could provide funding to start some of those projects as well as improve maintenance.

Schubak said 145 communities in Texas have adopted stormwater utility fees. The fees would be based on “equivalent runoff units,” or ERUs. One ERU equals the impervious area for an average residential lot in town. Strand Associates calculated La Grange’s ERU at 4,410 sq. ft., based on the 1,478 single family residential parcels currently in La Grange.

The plan proposed Monday night calls for a stormwater utility fee of $4 to $6 per ERU per month. The average rate for cities between 2,500 and 15,000 population is $4.66 per ERU per month, according to the numbers presented by Strand Associates.

All single family residential properties in town would pay the fee for one ERU, regardless of property size. Nonresidential properties would pay a fee based on measured impervious area.

“The idea here is we use the impervious area as a meter for fee estimation,” Schubak said. ”So everyone understands the concept of, say, a water bill. Water usage is intuitive. It’s based on measure, the amount of usage. But we can’t measure stormwater runoff. It’s not practical. So that’s why the impervious surface is used as a way to measure the amount of drainage.”

Some property owners would face thousands of dollars in new fees every year.

According to figures presented by Schubak Monday night, La Grange ISD would have to pay $32,626 a year in stormwater fees at the $6 per ERU rate. The fee would apply to all properties, even nonprofits and churches. Sacred Heart Catholic Church would face up to $2,410 a year. The Fayette County government would be on the hook for up to $10,000 a year.

Councilwoman Patsy Zbranek urged staff to keep the public informed about the new fee under consideration.

“We’re a small town. We have a lot of people living on fixed incomes, and people can’t afford all of it,” said Councilwoman Patsy Zbranek. “I mean, it’s $4 today, it’s $8 tomorrow ... I may not be around at that time. I recommend that we really give this out to the public so they know what we’re looking at.”

Later in the meeting, local business owner and former city council member Calvin Mersiovsky spoke against the stormwater utility fee.

“I can’t find a town anywhere close to here that has the runoff tax,” Mersiovsky said. “You have to slow down. Last time I was here it was about a tax reinvestment zone. Tonight it’s about an eight million dollar sewer. What’s it going to be next time? A light rail project?

“Now, we’re going to maybe build a hotel and convention center at the fairgrounds. Write it down: never going to happen. That has to be private dollars. We’re not in the motel business. If there’s a need, somebody will come build it. That’s the way capitalism works. All we’re doing is haemorrhaging money on consultants. I think Jack told me that Strand is $120,000.”

Mersiovsky said the City has paid more than $900,000 in consulting fees over the past two years.

“At some point, don’t you guys want to see some results?” Mersiovsky asked the Council. “I mean, slow down. Pump the brakes.”

In an interview after the meeting, Thompson said the $900,000 over two years that Mersiovsky quoted in the meeting was an accurate number.

“Cities hiring out consultants is not an unusual practice,” Thompson said. “It’s very common for municipalities to hire outside help. In smaller cities, it’s even more prevalent because we don’t have the depth of staff that bigger cities do. So a lot of the stuff we hire out, like engineering and planning, we don’t have in-house people to do that. The bulk of our outside help is that kind of stuff.”

In addition, some of the consulting fees went to firms that administer grants received by the City. Grant awards typically cover fees associated with grant administration.

The City Council did not take any action on the proposed stormwater fee Monday night. In the interview after the meeting, Thompson said the $4 to $6 fee might be too steep for La Grange at this time.

“No one wants an additional fee,” he said. “No one likes taxes. I understand. But its a problem because drainage is the number one issue. As soon as I got here, that’s all I heard: we’ve got to fix the drainage. We got the grant to help pay for a lot of improvements. And we’re always going to be looking for grant money … On the flip side, it would be nice to have a dedicated source of revenue to help pay for (drainage) projects. We’ve got to be careful with how much we charge.

“Right now, I think it’s going to be on the back burner and see if there are other ways to handle this,” Thompson added. “It’s a tough situation to be in. There are still $8.3 million in (drainage) projects identified. It’s tough to figure out how to pay for all this.”