Copperas Cove council approves street-maintenance utility, removes blanket new-business exemption

The Copperas Cove City Council on Oct. 21 approved Ordinance No. 2025-35 to create a street maintenance utility and establish related fees, including a $10 monthly charge for residential accounts and a revised nonresidential rate schedule. The council voted 4-3 to remove the ordinance’s proposed two‑year automatic exemption for new businesses and to move forward with the fee; the city later adopted a related amendment to the fee schedule that will make the charge effective Jan. 1, 2026.

City staff told the council the revised nonresidential bands substantially lower previously proposed charges and that the change reduces projected revenue from roughly $3.0 million under the original model to about $1.67 million annually under the revised model. Scott Osborne, assistant city manager and director of public works, told the council the smaller revenue amount would not meet the estimated $4.6 million (in 2021 dollars) staff said is needed to begin improving the citywide pavement condition index; the approved plan would slow the network’s decline rather than fully reverse it.

The ordinance implements a banded nonresidential structure based on trip-generation factors…