Brian Johnson, Director of Public Works and City Engineer, told the Manhattan City Commission on June 24 that the city’s stormwater program is funding a large set of downtown projects and that modest per-unit fee increases are planned to sustain the program and pay bond obligations.

Johnson said the stormwater fund expects roughly $5.3 million in revenue for the year and an anticipated year-end balance around $4.6 million, but that capital debt payments for major downtown projects are creating near-term dips in the fund balance. He said about 87% of the program’s spending goes to capital projects that reduce flooding, and personnel costs fund roughly 17 full-time equivalents.

Johnson reviewed the downtown East and West watershed strategy and emphasized the role of the levee in both protecting the city and conveying runoff. He described a sequence of capital-improvement projects (CIP 1–4 and later phases) intended to divert water away from an undersized “Pretty Ditch,” carry runoff north past Bluemont and through the levee, and build out an interceptor at Fourteenth and Anderson to relieve recurring downtown flooding.

Johnson said the city’s fee-in-lieu program for the downtown watershed has funded six projects to date; the commission set the downtown fee-in-lieu at about $3.08 per square foot of additional impervious area, and staff proposed no change to that downtown fee-in-lieu for 2026. He also described a separate “fee in lieu of treatment” being designed to let developers pay a one-time fee (staff’s current discussion figure: about $0.31 per square foot of new impervious) while the city buys treatment credits or funds offsite treatment in rural locations. Johnson said he was discussing that program with KDHE and hoped to return with details in the fall.

Johnson presented a draft fee trajectory that anticipates roughly a $0.50 annual increase to base fees through 2029 and described a temporary surcharge (about $0.25 per month) proposed to seed a down payment for bond financing for downtown levee-related work. He said the city has saved about $2 million toward that down payment and would adjust the surcharge once bond payments are set; commissioners noted the bond term and interest-rate uncertainty and asked how long the surcharge would last (staff estimated bond terms could be up to about 20 years depending on rates and credits).

Johnson walked commissioners through other future projects (lower Kearney, Casement Road — where an earlier study estimated an $8 million cost to widen to three lanes, with about 30% design complete — South Manhattan South Point, Fourteenth Street interceptor) and compared Manhattan’s equivalent-residential-unit (ERU) fee to peer cities. He said about 50% of the city’s businesses pay less than $50 a month in stormwater fees; the top 1% of customers (e.g., very large footprints such as Walmart) pay substantially more.

During public comment Amber Starling asked whether planned projects address flooding on Yuma Street; Johnson listed completed and planned projects that he said reduce flows reaching that area, including prior large storm sewer work on Sixth Street, project 15, and planned South Manhattan projects. Resident Andrew Von Lintel asked whether downtown flooding risk will materially increase with future development; staff replied the projects are intended to reduce flood risk and encourage redevelopment, but acknowledged the city cannot prevent flooding from extreme, short-duration storms.

Ending: Commissioners expressed general support for the planned fee path and the fee-in-lieu programs while asking staff to continue refining cost and bond assumptions and to return with ordinance-level proposals in the fall.