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Indian Trail adopts four‑tier stormwater fee structure; residential billing method changes
Summary
Council adopted a new four-tier residential stormwater fee structure and accepted updated impervious-area mapping; staff said the change maintains current revenue while spreading fees across more accurate impervious-area categories.
The Indian Trail Town Council unanimously approved a new four-tier residential stormwater fee structure after staff presented updated mapping of impervious surfaces and a recommended tiered rate schedule.
Town staff said the previous system used a 2,060-square-foot Equivalent Residential Unit (ERU) definition based on a 2008 rooftop average and two billing tiers. Freezing Nichols (consultant) completed updated mapping and identified more impervious area across residential and commercial properties. Staff said if the town simply reclassified impervious area using the new mapping under the old two-tier structure a substantially larger share of households would be billed at the higher rate.
To avoid shifting most households into a higher single tier, staff recommended a four-tier structure based on residential impervious area: less than 3,000 square feet; 3,000–4,000; 4,000–5,000; and greater than 5,000. Using the new mapping, staff reported approximately 14,828 billed units and an estimated annual revenue close to the current target (~$830,000). Under the four-tier plan the majority of homes would see small adjustments but staff calculated the overall revenue would be similar to the current total.
Mike (staff) described residential examples and the inclusion of driveways, patios and similar surfaces in the impervious-area calculation. The town will not change commercial billing structure at this time; staff said commercial parcels include newly discovered impervious area (about a reported 11% increase) but recommended further analysis before changing commercial rates.
Council adopted the recommendation to move to the four-tier residential fee structure. Staff said the change will require notification to the tax office and implementation steps before the next billing cycle.
No member of the public spoke against the proposal at the meeting. Council members asked for and received clarifications about ERU definition and how newly discovered impervious areas would be handled for commercial properties.
