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Stormwater fee closer to coming to life

By Nick Blank
Posted 9/26/18

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – City officials say a stormwater user fee to fund millions in stormwater projects is likely coming next year, though a few processes must be completed before implementation. …

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Stormwater fee closer to coming to life


Posted

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – City officials say a stormwater user fee to fund millions in stormwater projects is likely coming next year, though a few processes must be completed before implementation.

Projects in the five-year capital improvement plan call for about $500,000 for both the Clay Street storm basin and improvements to Magnolia Avenue. Assistant City Manager Mike Null said the estimated $850,000 for West Street and $750,000 for Julia Street were important repairs, though he expected 75 percent of those projects to be funded by grants.

“There’s still millions and millions of dollars in stormwater projects that need to be completed within the foreseeable future,” Null said.

Robert Walpole of CHW Professional Consultants, told council members an Equivalent Stormwater Unit was set at 2,400 square feet. He said the rate should be set by dividing the amount of impervious area in the tax parcel by the 2,400 square feet.

Levying a fee on every city parcel appears like an enormous sum of money, but Walpole said he expects about half of all parcels to qualify for mitigation credit by having modern stormwater infrastructure. New development and redevelopment can also qualify for the credit.

Agricultural and vacant land would be considered exempt and residential units would only be classified as one ESU. Walpole said Magnolia Park would be exempt from the fee, but there was a caveat.

“...Provided they don’t discharge into any city systems, they still maintain their own systems and stay in good standing with the [St. Johns River Water Management District] permits, then they could be exempt from this,” Walpole said.

To determine the numbers of ESUs per parcel, council members directed staff to contract out the mapping of each parcel. Walpole said the process is tedious, but only has to be done once.

“Everything is based on impervious area. The Clay County Property Appraiser does not maintain impervious area for commercial, school, government or property,” Walpole said. “So, we have to look at how we’re going to collect all of this data.”

Walpole estimated the city collecting fees from about 4,500 parcels and recommended the city set the fee at $167 per ESU to reach the $750,000 per year needed for stormwater projects.

Outgoing City Manager Danielle Judd said the city ought to know the total impervious area first before setting the fee amount.

“We need to know that from going through all the analysis that needs to be done,” she said.

Vice Mayor Mitch Timberlake said the city needed to send a notice to every homeowner and businesses about credits.

“I really prefer us getting in front of it and letting people know what our methodology is going to be and making sure we got the numbers right,” Timberlake said.