Westminster council backs work to develop tiered roadway improvement fee, aims to shift costs toward high-traffic businesses

Westminster city staff on Monday presented a proposal to reshape the city’s roadway improvement fee, recommending a $2 monthly increase for residential accounts and a new tiered schedule for commercial properties intended to shift more of the cost burden to high-traffic retail and service businesses.

The proposal would raise the residential fee from $6 to $8 per water meter and create three nonresidential tiers — retail superstore, retail high-traffic and retail moderate-traffic — plus an “other commercial” category. Staff said the change would add about $4 million in revenue and reduce the city’s annual streets funding gap from roughly $9 million to about $5 million.

Why it matters: Westminster identified roughly $26 million in annual needs for pavement, curb and gutter, traffic-calming and signal…