11-13-2001 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION ••cctinO NOV 1 5 2001 CUT or onoi^O DATE: November 13. 2001 ITEM NO.: 2. Department Approval: Name Grcgor>' A. Gappa TIUe D»reclor of PuKic Semtes Administrator Reviewed: Agenda Section: Publk Service's Dircclun Report Itrai Deacriptioa: Public Hearing on EstablKhment of a Storm Water Utility Introduction Municipalities create storm water utilities so that dedicated funds are available to operate, nuiniain. manage, construct or reconstruct their municipal storm water drainage systems. In Uie past, special assessments against benefiiting properties, or general tax revenue financed most stonn water improvements. These financing methods have not been uniformly successful in providing sufficient revenue. Applying assessments requires proof of benefit and it is difficult to prove a benefit to upstream properties in the drainage area. Recently, assessments have been successfully challenged in die courts, since then it has become increasingly difficult to prove benefit against assessed properties. Most commonly Cities draw from the general fund to finance municipal improvement projects. With its levy limits for municipalities, the State Legislature has limited the ability to fund projects in this manner. For the past several years, the City of Orono has included a S45.000 ia.x levy for die stonn water improvements in the PIR Fund. As a result of die tax levy limits, the City ’s ability to adequately fund the year 2002 budget was limited. At the budget work session the Council directed staff to remove the S45.000 PIR budget item from the tax levy and to begin the process for the implementation of Storm Water Utility. A storm water utility is a dedicated revenue source intended to alleviate the burden on general funds and avoid the time and expense of assessment proceedings. All Minnesou cities, under MSS 444.07S. can establish a storm water utility. Essentially, the storm water utility is identical to a water or sanitary sewer utility, in which the utility's users finance the utility's mfrastructure costs. A "user* is normally defined as any develt^ied propeny that contributes storm water runoff to the storm drainage system. City owned propeny. park properties owned by other governmental units, and undeveloped privately owned lands do not fund the utility. Typically, the City charges the storm water utility fee to all ■users" with the fee based on the amount of runoff tliat each property generates. The runoff generated relates directly to the amount of impervious area found on the property. Consequently, a property with more impervious area uses the system to a greater extent than a property with less hard surface. Pagcl