Council narrows franchise-fee options, asks staff to return with three proposals for retaining walls and energy programs

Bloomington City Council members spent more than an hour on April 21 debating whether to increase the city's utility franchise fee to fund failing retaining walls and new sustainability programs, ultimately directing staff to return to a public hearing with three narrowed choices.

Council members heard presentations from city engineering and sustainability staff about the scale of retaining-wall needs and a proposal to use franchise-fee revenue to seed financing for home and business energy-efficiency upgrades. After questions about who would pay, program design and alternatives to a rate increase, the council coalesced around asking staff to bring options A, B and E back for public consideration.

The council's direction matters because the franchise fee is assessed to energy utilities that operate in city right-of-way; unlike property tax revenue, the fee applies to some properties that are tax-exempt (for example, some nonprofits) and so changes the distribution of who pays for local infrastructure. Staff said the current budget allocates about $45,000 annually for retaining-wall work but that some imminent projects have engineer estimates near $800,000'$900,000.

Engineering staff presented a citywide inventory of retaining walls and described a…