(A) Establishment. Pursuant to M.S. § 444.075, as it may be amended from time to time, the city establishes a storm water drainage utility and authorizes the imposition of just and reasonable charges for the use and availability of storm sewer facilities as may be established in Ch. 50.
(B) Findings and determinations.
(1) In the exercise of its governmental authority and in order to promote the public health, safety, convenience and general welfare, the city has constructed, operated and maintained a storm sewer system (“the system”). This section is adopted in further exercise of such authority and for the same purposes.
(2) The system, as constructed heretofore, has been financed and paid for through the imposition of special assessments and ad valorem taxes. It is now necessary and desirable to provide an alternative method of recovering some or all of the future costs of improving, maintaining and operating the system through the imposition of charges as provided in this section.
(3) In imposing charges it is necessary to establish a methodology that undertakes to make them just and equitable. Taking into account the status of topography of the city and other relevant factors, it is determined that it would be just and equitable to assign responsibility for some of the future costs of operating, maintaining and improving the system on the basis of the expected storm water runoff from the various parcels of land within the city during a standard rainfall event. For the purposes of this section, a STANDARD RAINFALL EVENT is defined as the 100-year storm of one-day duration. It is assumed that there is five times as much runoff from impervious land as land covered with vegetation for the standard rainfall event.
(4) Assigning costs and making charges based upon expected typical storm water runoff cannot be done with mathematical precision but can only be accomplished within reasonable and practical limits. The provisions of this section undertake to establish a reasonable and practical methodology for making such charges.
(Ord. 305, passed 6-10-2002)