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Taneytown council backs drafting code changes to require groundwater recharge for larger developments
Summary
Council gave staff consensus to develop code changes that would require major projects to provide groundwater recharge or pay a fee-in-lieu; details including thresholds and fee levels will be worked out over coming months.
The Taneytown City Council agreed by consensus to direct staff to draft changes to the municipal code that would require groundwater recharge for larger site development projects and establish a fee-in-lieu option.
City Manager Jim Weiprecht outlined the proposed approach, saying, “The idea basically is we’re gonna add a definition of groundwater recharge to the water chapter.” He described removing older code language that referred to a water replacement fee and replacing it with a recharge requirement for projects over a to-be-determined threshold. Weiprecht said the administration expects to create a city-managed recharge bank that smaller projects could buy into if they do not provide on-site recharge.
Weiprecht noted the draft language under consideration would exempt very small projects and allow flexibility on exact thresholds: “trying to work out some language so that the minor subdivisions, which is less than 3 lots being created, and site development plans and, you know, again, I use the figure of 5,000 gallons per day. Less than that would be able to buy the recharge, pay that fee instead of dedicating recharge.”
He added the city would treat the recharge fee separately from the water benefit assessment and suggested establishing the recharge fee through the city’s fee schedule. “And this would also be establishing a fee in lieu of recharge,” Weiprecht said. The council did not adopt an ordinance; it gave staff and the city attorney direction to draft code language and work out implementation details, including how many equivalent dwelling units the bank would represent and what the fee should be.
Council members and staff noted the city already is pursuing other recharge and water projects and that the fee will require additional analysis. Weiprecht said the goal is to have an ordinance before the council in the spring after staff talks with property owners and refines cost estimates.
The council also received routine updates that the Wester Drive waterline replacement contract has been secured and that ARPA funds have been fully committed for that project. No fee levels or final thresholds were adopted at the meeting.
