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Indian Trail hires consultant to map impervious surfaces; aims to update stormwater fee assessments
Summary
Council awarded a professional services contract to Freese and Nichols to map impervious surfaces and update stormwater-fee assessments; staff said the update is intended to capture unreported commercial impervious area and to enable more accurate residential tiers. The council voted unanimously to award the contract not to exceed $129,350.
The Indian Trail Town Council on March 11 approved a contract with Freese and Nichols Inc. to perform an updated impervious-area mapping and a stormwater-fee assessment, a two-part project the town said will support more accurate stormwater billing and FEMA-required floodplain mapping.
The selected firm will produce GIS-based impervious-area mapping for every parcel and perform floodplain/structure mapping requested by FEMA. Staff and consultants told the council the work will let the town capture commercial impervious surfaces that have been added without permitting (for example, expanded gravel or paved storage areas) and calibrate residential tiers to current development patterns.
"We're going to get the storm revenue once we do all these commercial sites in town," a staff presenter told council, adding that consultants expected some commercial parcels to generate higher assessed impervious area when remeasured.
Council discussion focused on how impervious is defined and assessed. Staff said compacted ABC stone and other compacted gravel types are treated as impervious because compaction and fine material cause the surface to behave like a hard surface. Staff described the town's existing residential baseline (2,060 square feet) and said the new mapping could lead to a revised tier structure for homes.
The contract: Council awarded the professional services contract to Freese and Nichols Inc. for an amount not to exceed $129,350. The motion to award the contract carried unanimously.
Why it matters: The mapping will let the town better align stormwater fees with actual impervious surface area on residential and commercial lots and will also produce FEMA-compliant floodplain structure mapping so the town can notify property owners whose accessory structures fall in flood-prone areas.
Timing and next steps: Staff said the impervious mapping portion of the contract should be completed by June so the town can consider fee changes for the next fiscal year. The second phase (detailed floodplain mapping) will support FEMA requests and outreach to affected homeowners. Staff recommended using fee revenue to pay for the mapping work once new impervious assessments are in place.
Council vote and direction: A motion to award the contract to Freese and Nichols Inc. in an amount not to exceed $129,350 passed unanimously. Staff will return with recommendations for a revised residential tier structure and for commercial billing adjustments in the coming months.
