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Indian Trail adopts four-tier residential stormwater fee structure
Summary
After receiving updated impervious surface mapping, the town council approved replacing a two-tier stormwater fee with a four-tier residential structure to maintain current revenue while better matching charges to measured impervious area.
The Indian Trail Town Council approved a change to the town’s residential stormwater fee structure, moving from a two-tier system to a four-tier rate intended to keep annual revenue near current levels while basing charges on updated measurements of impervious surface.
Public works staff presented updated mapping that identified additional impervious area across the town. Staff said the prior system used a 2,060-square-foot equivalent residential unit (ERU) benchmark established in 2008; updated mapping that includes driveways, pools, patios and accessory structures increased measured impervious area and would have substantially increased bills under the old two-tier model.
To reduce abrupt increases for most residents while capturing growth and matching impervious coverage more accurately, staff proposed a four-tier residential fee structure: less than 3,000 sq ft; 3,000–4,000; 4,000–5,000; and greater than 5,000. Staff showed modeled distributions: roughly 50% of homes would fall into the lowest tier, about 28% into the second, 12% into the third, and 9% into the top tier. Under the proposed tiers, staff said total billed units would be about 14,808 and projected revenue about $835,000—close to the current-year target of approximately $830,000.
Council member motioned to adopt the four-tier structure; the council approved the change. Staff said commercial billing will remain on the existing ERU-based system for now, because the updated mapping showed approximately an 11% increase in commercial impervious area that will require additional evaluation.
Staff emphasized that the mapping update identified roughly 221 added residential units not yet captured and that some properties may see small increases while many would see lower per-household rates under the new tiers. Staff also said finer adjustments to commercial rates may be proposed later.
The council adopted the new residential rates and instructed staff to provide billing details and outreach to customers ahead of the next billing cycle.
