Lynn Haven hears options to raise stormwater revenue, reconfigure tiers to fund $6.4M capital plan

City officials and outside consultants presented detailed options on Jan. 28 for restructuring Lynn Haven’s stormwater assessment and raising revenue to fund a multi-year capital plan.

The presentation, led by Peter Napoli of Santa Consulting and Kyle Stevens, reviewed the city’s stormwater revenue history, current service tiers and a five-year capital program. Napoli said the assessment was moved from a monthly utility fee to an annual property-tax assessment in 2022 and noted the fund’s unaudited beginning balance for 2025 is approximately negative $676,000. He and Stevens laid out scenarios that would allow the stormwater fund to pay operations and capital without transfers from other enterprise funds.

The consultants and staff described three broad approaches: keep current rates (which would require deferring projects and leave the fund in deficit); a “rip the band‑aid” one‑time large increase to reach full funding quickly (a roughly 70% revenue increase in the consultant’s example); or a smaller one‑time increase (about 50%) combined with a proposed annual surtax contribution (shown in the…