HomeMy WebLinkAboutSupplemental Attachments - 1/22/2019WOv1L Sks-J✓l
STORM WATER USER FEE INCREASE
January 21, 2019
The City of Waterloo adopted its current storm water fees on December 7, 2010. Since then
there has not been an increase in the user fees, yet the number of projects that need to be
constructed to control storm water have been increasing. See Appendix A for a map of the
existing storm water projects.
Currently the storm water fee pays for the storm water management program, maintenance of the
City's storm sewer system, enforcement of storm water regulations, public education and
outreach programs, storm sewer system studies, drainage way assessments, storm water staff, the
City's annual ]DNR storm water discharge permit and street sweeping.
The current user fee is set up to differentiate between residential and commercial properties.
Residential users currently pay a fee of $2.75 per dwelling unit/month. A fee reduction of $1.00
per month is available to those households that meet the City of Waterloo's low income
guidelines.
Commercial, industrial and institutional properties are charged a base fee of $2.75/month plus
$2.75/month for each 5,000 square feet of impervious area. Impervious areas include buildings,
driveways, sidewalks, parking lots, etc.
Table 1.0 below shows how the City of Waterloo's current storm water user fees compares to
other cities across the state of Iowa.
Storm Water Fee Comparison
City
Residential Amount Residential Amount
Per Month Per Year
Davenport $ 2.72 $ 32.64
Waterloo $ 2.75 $ 33.00
Cedar Falls* $ 3.15 $ 37.80
West Des Moines $ 4.25 $51.00
Iowa City $ 4.50 $
54.00
Ames $ 4.95 $ 59.40
Cedar Rapids $ 5.18 $ 62.16
Dubuque $ 6.81 $ 81.72
Des Moines $ 12.68 $ 152.16
Table 1.0
*The City of Cedar Falls just adopted a 5.0% increase each of the next five years to cover
increasing storm water compliance costs.
Currently listed in the Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) are approximately $30 million dollars in
storm water projects that have been identified city-wide. Most of these projects are currently
unfunded. Current CIP bonding has held steady at around seven million to eight million dollars
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per year. Storm water projects have been rated lower in priority than other projects and at the
current CIP levels, the storm water projects never rate high enough to be funded.
There are numerous possibilities that could be used to determine a rate increase but I will focus
on three of them:
1. No increase
2. $1.25/month increase in all service types plus $0.25 increase for all service types for each
year for 5 years
3. $3.00/month increase
With no increase in the storm water user fee, current obligations such as storm sewer
enforcement, maintenance of the storm sewer system, street sweeping and other required
operations would continue but there would be very little revenue for construction projects and
funding for construction of these projects would need to come from the CIP with an
undetermined time frame to complete the projects.
With a $1.25/month increase in the storm water user fee along with an increase of $0.25 each
year for five years all of the current operations can continue to be funded, inflation would be
accounted for and it would allow for the majority of the projects shown in Appendix A to be
completed in approximately 20 to 25 years.
With a $3.00/month increase in the storm water user fee all of the current operations can
continue to be funded, inflation would be accounted for and it would allow for the majority of
the projects shown in Appendix A to be completed in approximately 15 to 20 years. This
increase would amount to a doubling the current storm water fee. This increase in revenue
would be difficult to spend each year as there is only so much construction and so many
contractors to complete the work during any given year.
Table 2.0 below shows the existing rates for each property type and the proposed rate for 2019:
STORM WATER USER FEE RATES
Proposed
Property Type
Current
2019
Undeveloped Property
$ -
$ -
Residential (1.0 ERU)
$ 2.75
$ 4.00
Commercial/Industrial (Base)
$ 2.75
$ 4.00
Commercial/Industrial (1.0
ERU per 5,000 sf of
Impervious Area)
$ 2.75
$ 4.00
Table 2.0
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Along with the proposed increase for 2019, I am also proposing an increase in the user fee each
year for the next 5 years. This is an increase is a $0.25/ month for each property type listed
below. Table 3.0 below shows the proposed rates for each property type:
STORM WATER USER FEE RATES
Property Type
2020
2021
2022
2023
Undeveloped Property
$ -
$ -
$ -
$ -
Residential (1.0 ERU)
$ 4.25
$ 4.50
$ 4.75
$ 5.00
Commercial/Industrial (Base)
$ 4.25
$ 4.50
$ 4.75
$ 5.00
Commercial/Industrial (1.0
ERU per 5,000 sf of
Impervious Area)
$ 4.25
$ 4.50
$ 4.75
$ 5.00
Table 3.0
If the City had installed an automatic rate increase of 3% each year from 2010 to 2019 the
current monthly rate would be $3.60 versus the proposed $4.00 monthly rate and a 5% increase
each year during that same time frame would result in a current user fee of $4.25 for 2019.
Based on raising the fee to $4.00 per month, Waterloo will still be in the bottom one-third of
what cities are charging for their storm water fee.
If the user fee increase is approved, Appendix B shows the proposed list of storm water projects
for the years 2019-2029. These projects would be subject to change based on factors such as
property acquisition, economic development opportunities and funding availability. Please note
that the projects listed are based on the assumption that after 2023 the storm water user fees
continue to increase by $0.25/month until 2029 at which point the fee is projected to remain flat.
Appendix C shows how the storm water user fee increase will affect non-residential property
owners for 2019.
I am asking the council to approve the rates as shown in Table 2.0 effective March 4, 2019 and
the rates shown in Table 3.0 to be effective beginning January 1St of each year listed.
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APPENDIX A
EXISTING STORM WATER MAP
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LEGEND
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CIIOANNEL IMPROVEMENT
APPENDIX B
PROPOSED STORM WATER PROJECTS LIST
YEARS 2019-2029
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Proi
2028 2029
Project Year Year
Upton Detention Study
.Upton Detention Design
Upton Detention Construction
Sunnyside (Martin Rd to BHC) Study
Sunnyside (Martin Rd to BHC) Desig
Sunnyside (Martin Rd to BHC) Const
Sunnyside (Ridgeway Ave to Martin ]
Sunnyside (Ridgeway Ave to Martin ]
Sunnyside (Ridgeway Ave to Martin ]
Sunnyside (Ridgeway Ave to Martin ]
Sunnyside (Ridgeway Ave to Martin
Sunnyside (Ridgeway Ave to Martin ]
Sunnyside (San Maman to Ridgeway',
Sunnyside (San Maman to Ridgeway,,
Sunnyside (San Maman to Ridgeway',
Delane Detention Study
Delane Detention Design
Delane Detention Construction
Delane Detention Construction
Arline Hwy Storm Sewer Outlet Des
Airline Hwy Storm Sewer Outlet Con
Virden Creek Outlet (Hwy 63 to Vird
Virden Creek Outlet (Hwy 63 to Vird
Virden Creek Outlet (Hwy 63 to Vird
Ridgeway Box Culvert Study
Ridgeway Box Culvert Design
Ridgeway Box Culvert Construction
Pleasant Valley Drainage Improveme
Pleasant Valley Drainage Improveme
Pleasant Valley Drainage Improveme
Allen Hospital Drainage Improvement
Allen Hospital Drainage Improvement
Allen s Hoital Drama Im a
Hospital Drainage provemenf,� 1,000,00 00.00
No Name Creek Improvements Stud)
-------- ---
No Name Creek Improvements Desi
No Name Creek Improvements Cons$ . 0
: 1,000,000.00
Project Costs $ 2,000,000.00 ! $
Budget Expenses (Engineering, Public$ 1,684,804.21 $ 1,735,348.33
Revenue $ 3, 725, 100. 00 ! $ 3,874,104.00
Difference 3 40,295.79 ! $ 2,138,755.67
APPENDIX C
NON-RESIDENTIAL STORM WATER EXAMPLES
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Storm Water Examples
Current
Current
Current
Commercial Area (sf)
ERU
Commercial Rate
Monthly Rate
Yearly Rate
20,000.00
5,000.00
$ 2.75
$ 13.75
$ 165.00
50,000.00
5,000.00
$ 2.75
$ 30.25
$ 363.00
100,000.00
5,000.00
$ 2.75
$ 57.75
$ 693.00
Proposed 2019
Proposed 2019
Proposed
2019
Commercial Area (sf)
ERU
Commercial Rate
Monthly Rate
Yearly Rate
20,000.00
5,000.00
$ 4.00
$ 20.00
$ 240.00
50,000.00
5,000.00
$ 4.00
$ 44.00
$ 528.00
100,000.00
5,000.00
$ 4.00
$ 84.00
$ 1,008.00
Proposed
2019
Commercial Area (sf)
Total
Increase
20,000.00
$ 75.00
50,000.00
$ 165.00
100,000.00
$ 315.00
Large Site Example
Current
Current
Current
Commercial Area (sf)
ERU
Commercial Rate
Monthly Rate
Yearly Rate
10,000,000.00
5,000.00
$ 2.75
$ 5,502.75
$ 66,033.00
Proposed 2019
Proposed 2019
Proposed
2019
Commercial Area (sf)
ERU
Commercial Rate
Monthly Rate
Yearly Rate
10,000,000.00
5,000.00
$ 4.00
$ 8,002.75
$ 96,033.00
Proposed Increase
$ 30,000.00
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