Charlottesville City officials are considering a new tax to fund an expensive repair to the deteriorating stormwater drainage system. Currently, city management of the stormwater drainage system is funded from the general budget to the tune of $915,000 annually. The proposed changes recommended to City Council at the September 17 meeting would push that cost upward to $2.4 million annually, a financial burden that would be borne by city property owners.
According to City Environmental Administrator Kristel Riddervold, this expensive price tag would be covered entirely by the new tax. A monthly charge, estimated at between $8 to $10 for the average city property owner, would be based on that property owner’s contribution to the stormwater problem. Those properties with more impervious surfaces, such as concrete and asphalt, would pay a higher tax.
“One of the values of using a fee-based system is it really makes the direct link between what people are paying and what the problem is—how much impervious surface exists,” says Riddervold, adding that there is some resistance to the new tax, but she hopes program results will shift public opinion. “If the fee can result in a large enough program to accomplish enough of what we’ve been talking about, it will result in support for the program.”
City staff estimate that approximately 11 miles of pipes need to be fully replaced to address both existing and anticipated failures in the city’s stormwater drainage system. Under the existing system, Riddervold notes that city maintenance workers are oftentimes spread too thin completing emergency repairs to finish regular scheduled maintenance. This, in turn, results in further problems with the stormwater system.
“It is extremely typical of a lot of older cities, that their old underground infrastructure gets neglected,” says Riddervold. “It’s kind of the out of sight, out of mind situation. For a very long time, stormwater specifically didn’t have regulations tied to it, and it often either fell to the bottom of the list or off the table.”
Councilors agreed that the city needs to act immediately, though some questioned the specifics of Monday night’s proposal, specifically why it contained so many new staff positions. Dave Norris said the tax, as it stands now, is light on incentives for private property owners. Acknowledging that a repair project of this magnitude might not be pretty, Mayor David Brown said, “We have to move forward on this. It’s going to be painful, but we have to.”
City officials will attempt to get improvements to the stormwater drainage system back on the table for further discussion at an upcoming work session. If problems with the new tax do not bog down the issue, Riddervold says she hopes for approval by Council to result in a program start date of July 2008.
Additional reporting by Scott Weaver.
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