City ponders $3 utility fee to pay for storm drainage system

A proposed utility fee to pay for a $20 million Carson City storm drainage system to meet federal clean-water requirements and prevent future flooding will hit businesses too hard, the Chamber of Commerce says.

City staff is proposing to use a utility fee to pay for the drainage system, but have been asked by the Board of Supervisors to come up with alternatives.

Plans have been brewing to build a drainage system since the 1997 New Year's flood. A Storm Drainage Advisory Committee met for four years to develop a plan. It was passed a year ago, but now the city must decide how to pay for it, said City Engineer Larry Werner.

The drainage system would address flooding, maintenance of storm water facilities constructed outside the freeway corridor as a result of an agreement with the state transportation department, and a new federal law that requires the city to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination permit for storm water to address water quality.

"It's the final tail end of the program," Werner said.

Staff proposed charging a utility fee, but the board asked Werner to look at alternatives. A survey was sent out in the Appeal, and the city received more than 50 responses. Most favored the utility fee, Werner said.

Alternatives would call for using property taxes or a mix of property tax and utility fees.

So far, the utility fee that would charge about $3 a month for residential users appears to be the top choice, Werner said.

The fee equals $283 per month for each residential unit. A residential unit is based on the average house with 3,600 square feet of impervious surface, ground covered by a structure or asphalt.

Commercial property, schools, the airport and other publicly owned buildings have a larger amount of impervious coverage, resulting in higher fees. Most commercial properties are equivalent to between two and 10 homes. The Carson City Airport, though, has facilities that equal about 800 homes -- a monthly charge of about $2,700.

The Carson City School District owns about 1 million square feet of covered ground, which could result in $30,000 in annual storm water fees.

Larry Osborne, executive director of the Carson Area Chamber of Commerce, said businesses understand the need to prevent flooding, but the cost is unfair to businesses.

"The comments we've gotten back are, 'Wow, this is a pretty pig expense we're suddenly facing,'" Osborne said. "Why are we being hit with this fee at this time?"

Smaller businesses already struggling to keep up with development in Douglas County might feel the pinch with higher rents, Osborne said.

He said he plans to address the supervisors when the issue comes forward. City staff is pushing to bring the fee proposal back to the board Oct. 17, but it might be heard in November, Werner said. The city is looking to implement the program in January.

Businesses would rather spread out the cost or find another alternative, Osborne said.

School district director of operations Mike Mitchell met with city staff six months ago about the fees.

"When we heard the $30,000 number, I was not excited," Mitchell said. "As we talked more about it, it kind of came to light the school district had an opportunity to work with the city and with the proposed utility plan to come up with a way that would not impact the school district with that amount of money."

As part of the program, the city would offer alternatives for larger ratepayers, like the school district, by using credits. The schools might be able to provide educational programs, for instance, as a trade for payment, a requirement the city must meet under the Clean Water Act. Other businesses might be able to build detention and retention basins as part of their facilities, Werner said.

Besides its large, covered surfaces, the district owns a substantial amount of open land that gives water a chance to percolate into the soil, Mitchell said.

"I think we can actually be more of a benefit to this problem than we are a hindrance," he said.