Council approves stormwater management fee

The new fee is designed to shore up the declining finances of the stormwater management fund and pay for repairs to 5 miles of aging pipes. It would also allow the city to hire 14 new full-time staff members to provide more inspections and make needed repairs.

Mayor Susan R. Hoffmann called the fee a small price to pay for better stormwater management that will help the environment, including Chesapeake Bay.

‘‘This is part of our effort to be sustainable and clean up the planet,” she said.

All single-family detached homeowners would be charged the same rate. Starting as early as this summer, those residents could pay $55.80 a year. That number is projected to be $76.20 a year by fiscal year 2013. The fee would not be assessed for unimproved lots.

The stormwater fund has been self-supporting since it was created in 1978, but is expected to run out of money within five years without additional funding. Its sources of income, which include developer contributions and permit fees, grants and interest income from the fund balance, would continue under the fee plan.

Other properties, including commercial and governmental, would be harder hit. Commercial and other non-single-family residential properties would be charged on the amount of impervious surface measured on each property.

Assessing each single-family detached home would not be worth the staff time, but commercial, city and county properties are, Craig Simoneau, director of public works, said.

The city has developed a standard measure based on the median amount of impervious surface — 2,330 square feet — on 200 sampled sites throughout Rockville.

City staff recommended imposing the fee system instead of drawing any stormwater shortfall from the general fund, which is largely funded by property taxes.

Single-family properties make up just 28 percent of the city’s imperviousness. Under the proposed fee, those owners would pay an equivalent amount, leaving the rest to fall to multi-family units, commercial properties and nonprofit entities.

While the city would pay about $70,000 in fees for its properties during the coming fiscal year, Councilman John Britton asked if other governments are okay with the proposed fee.

Assistant City Attorney Sondra Block said the fee is a legally allowable fee for service.

‘‘I would think the impediments would be political and not legal,” she said. ‘‘The county does not want to pay the charges — it is my understanding.”

Billing is still a problem that needs to be worked out. The city wants to include the fee on county property tax bill because municipal utility bills do not reach all Rockville property owners.

The county has indicated that might not be possible, city staff reports, because of systematic complications. The city has offered to cover any additional billing costs.

The council is scheduled to introduce the enabling legislation on Dec. 17. Public hearing and informational meetings will follow in early 2008.