GAINESVILLE – The Gainesville City Council plans to vote next week on the creation of a Stormwater Management Program and implementation of fees to fund it.
Councilmembers heard from Water Resources Director Kelly Randall Tuesday morning at their work session about plans focused on the challenges created by storm water runoff.
“We’ve been working for almost three years on this Stormwater (Program),” Randall said.
Councilman Sam Couvillon said the time to face the problem is now. “The infrastructure side is something that I think is imperative that we as a Council address,” Couvillon said, pointing at the recent closure of Sardis Road following heavy rains and the mushrooming cost of associated repairs.
The cost estimate to complete all that is needed to meet the City's needs according to Randall is placed at $132.3 million. That is an enormous amount of money for any city, especially one as small as Gainesville, to provide.
Randall said the program would be funded over a twenty year period. “What we’re trying to do is set up a program and a structure so that every year we can re-evaluate and move forward, and try and ‘eat that elephant one bite at a time’.”
Randall explained that aging infrastructure (some of it over 100-years old) made the challenge greater. “The city has been around since (1821) and we’ve been putting pipes in the ground ever since then. There’s an enormous repertoire of projects out there.”
Randall presented his department’s recommendation on how to generate the needed funds to finance the Program.
“What we’re recommending is that we implement a dollar per thousand square-feet of impervious surface…that would begin in January of 2017,” he said. That fee would be charged on a monthly basis.
He explained that impervious surfaces include rooftops, driveways, sidewalks and paved parking lots. The calculated fee would be charged to all residential, commercial and industrial properties within the city limits.
He said the problem was exacerbated by existing impervious areas, and areas to come with future development, saying they have overwhelmed the existing drainage system.
“If you have impervious surface, obviously the water just runs off into the creeks quicker, and doesn’t have time to percolate into the ground. The real problem with that… those streams, God didn’t make them to transport the volumes of water at the velocities required because of all that impervious surface.”
Randall reported that his department was still working on a schedule of rebates and credits that would be made available to property owners who create or install water features that help rainfall percolate into the soil. Those specifics would be available at a later date he explained.
Randall added that the monthly fee was being phased in gently; that the actual cost to pay for the Program in its entirety would be closer to $2.73 per month per 1000 square-feet of impervious surface.
“Your successors,” Randall said to Councilmembers, “will have to decide whether they want to go faster or slower or whatever.”
A third item presented to the Council by Randall for their approval is an ordinance reducing sewer fees.
He explained that with the creation of a new entity – the Stormwater Management Program and fees to fund the Program – funds currently used for stormwater management and collected as part of sewer fees should decrease.
“That’s why we’re recommending, and I hope that you do adopt, to drop the sewer rate and not double-dip.”
Incoming City Manager Bryan Lackey, who led similar stormwater management efforts in Gwinnett County before coming to Gainesville, knows he has a big challenge awaiting him with the Program recommended by Randall. “It’s not a question of ‘if’, but ‘how’ to pay for it…now’s the time to move forward and do that; this is the equitable way to do it.”
The City Council will vote on the three items presented by Randall (creation of the Stormwater Management Program, the fee schedule for funding the Program and the decrease in sewer rates) at their voting session on Tuesday, December 1, at the Public Safety Complex on Queen City Parkway beginning at 5:30 p.m.
