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Murrysville council asks consultant for scenarios after debate over stormwater credit incentives
Summary
Council revisited the stormwater credit manual, asked the consultant to model revenue scenarios, and approved an RFP for billing services; members expressed concern credits may not sufficiently incentivize nonresidential BMPs and could erode a roughly $900k–$1.0M fee target.
The Murrysville council on March 17 continued a detailed review of a proposed stormwater credit manual tied to the stormwater fee ordinance and asked the consultant to model a range of revenue scenarios before council takes further action.
Chief Administrator Mike said the manual implements the credit system required by the ordinance and that staff seeks council feedback on the draft. The briefing noted the consultant’s estimate produced a stormwater revenue figure roughly around $1,000,017.01 annually; staff later said that figure assumed a 10% municipalwide credit and that the projected revenue could fall nearer to the community's planning target (about $900,000) depending on credit uptake.
Council members pressed on how credits would affect incentives, especially for nonresidential customers. Council member Michael said the draft seemed to under-incentivize BMP investment: "If someone reduces their runoff by 50%... they would only get a 17 and a half percent credit," he said, arguing that more meaningful credits may be needed to encourage infrastructure work. Other members raised equity concerns if larger commercial credits shift more of the fee burden to residential customers.
Council member Dane recommended inviting the engineering consultant (LSSE/LSSC referenced in the briefing) back to the meeting to explain the formulas and run modeled scenarios showing revenue impact under different credit structures. Chief Administrator Mike agreed to engage the consultant and try to provide modeled options in advance of the next public meeting.
Separately, council approved issuing a request for proposals for stormwater fee billing services so the municipality can secure an outside biller to manage account adjustments, apply approved credits, and perform collections. Mike said billing is required because the municipality does little large-scale billing in-house and any credits awarded would be applied by the contracted biller.
Next steps: staff will ask the consultant to model multiple credit-revenue scenarios and bring the results back to council; the municipality will issue the RFP for billing services and evaluate vendor responses.
