Impervious area study suggested to develop stormwater utility fee

The Rochester City Council on Tuesday heard a recommendation on hiring an engineering firm to help determine rates for a new stormwater utility fee.

Rochester Mayor Trent Odell is looking to soften the blow of a new stormwater utility fee on the city's horizon.

He suggested to the city council at its meeting Tuesday that an engineering firm be hired to help designate the fee rates by evaluating impervious surface areas. That suggestion came from former Warsaw mayor Joseph Thallemer, who Odell consulted with the day after the council's last meeting in June.

Equivalent residential units, or ERUs, would be used to calculate the stormwater fee for single-family homes. An ERU is the average square footage of impervious surfaces on a residential property, which are surfaces that prevent water from soaking into the ground.

The rate proposed for businesses, both small and large, also would be based on assessment of impervious surfaces by the engineering firm.

Those units of billing could also be tweaked to give nonprofits and churches a percentage discount, Odell noted.

"We can adjust how we need to and hopefully put a lighter load on our residents," Odell said. "I don't like to burden the businesses too much either, but you can deduct that expense."

Odell anticipated that a study of impervious surfaces throughout the city would take two to three months to complete before proposed rates could be established.

"We need to get these rates established," he said, noting that funding for maintenance of the city's aging stormwater infrastructure is currently being pulled from the street department's budget, and has been for years.

He told council members he would keep them updated as he learns more on the matter.