(a) There is established in the City a stormwater utility to provide efficient and effective management and financing of a stormwater system within the City; to provide a system for mitigating the damaging effects of uncontrolled and unplanned stormwater runoff; to mitigate and reduce the amount of stormwater mixed with sanitary sewage and sent to the City’s wastewater treatment facilities; to protect the public health, safety and welfare by providing for the safe and efficient capture and conveyance of stormwater runoff, for the correction of stormwater conditions detrimental to the public health, safety and welfare; to authorize the establishment and implementation of plans and mechanisms for dealing with stormwater drainage, including design, coordination construction, management, operation, maintenance and replacement of stormwater management facilities, inspection and enforcement activities and administration of the City’s stormwater utility; to establish reasonable stormwater utility service charges based on each property's contribution of stormwater runoff to the system and use and benefit of services and facilities to fund the City’s stormwater system; and to encourage and facilitate urban water resources management techniques, including detention of stormwater runoff, enhancing the amount of and use of permeable surfaces, minimization of the need to construct storm sewers, and the protection of the environment.
(b) It is determined that the establishment of a stormwater utility is necessary to enable the City to comply with the unfunded mandates imposed on it under the federal Clean Water Act and under requirements imposed on the City under the City’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
(c) It is determined and declared to be necessary and conducive to the protection of the public health, safety, welfare and necessary in order to accomplish the aforementioned purposes that a stormwater utility service charge shall be made on each lot or parcel in the City from which stormwater drains and which contributes to stormwater runoff. Each property's contribution to runoff shall be the primary consideration in setting the service charge. Secondary consideration shall be given to specific or unusual service requirements of some properties, and special and general benefits accruing to or from properties as a result of providing their own stormwater runoff mitigation facilities.
(d) The City's stormwater utility service charges are intended and designed to be fair and reasonable and bear a substantial relationship to the cost of providing service and facilities, regulation of stormwater runoff and administration of the City’s stormwater utility. Similar properties shall pay similar stormwater service charges. Charges shall reflect the area of each property and its intensity of development, since these factors bear directly on the peak rate of stormwater runoff. Stormwater utility service charge rates are designed to recover the cost of rendering stormwater service for the time period under consideration. The stormwater utility service charge rates are also established so as to maintain adequate fund reserves to provide for reasonably expected variations in the cost of providing services, as well as variations in the demand for services.
(Ord. 15-164, Passed 6-9-15.)