Businesses and residents tell Port Orchard council utility charges and permitting delays are harming small operations; mayor pledges process improvements

Several local business owners and residents used the council's public comment periods on March 10 to press the city for relief and clearer explanations about stormwater and sewer billing; they also reiterated earlier complaints about permit processing delays.

Daniel Potts (speaker 8), speaking for First Baptist Church at Port Orchard, said the church was charged for 18 impervious surface units and asked whether a site-specific filter on the outflow could reduce the assessed ISU. "Why are we being charged so much?" Potts asked, describing a drain that routes runoff onto the church property and saying a filter could capture roughly 75% of the impervious surface area now being charged.

John Underhill (speaker 10), representing Missus Sparkle's Laundry, said changes to sewer billing that moved to a consumption-based charge have cut into revenues. "With the increase, it is cutting into revenues ... we're going to have to consider increasing our charge for the washers and dryers because of that," Underhill said, and warned higher utility costs may be passed to lower-income customers who rely on laundromats.

Mayor and staff responded with clarifications and follow-up commitments. The mayor clarified the difference between stormwater and sewer charges for the speakers and asked that contact information be left with the clerk so public works staff could follow up. City staff also described ongoing permit-process work during the mayor's report: the city is consolidating permit software into a single system to allow applicants to track the status of permits, intends to publish expected timelines, has recently hired or offered a second building inspector, and has signed a contract for customer-service training to reduce adversarial interactions.

Council members on both sides of the issue said they want to balance enforcement of state-mandated building and energy codes with better applicant education and clearer code citations so businesses are not surprised by requirements. Several council members urged staff to provide concrete examples and timelines for process improvements and to return with metrics on how changes reduce backlog and processing times.

Next steps: staff said they will follow up individually with the businesses that spoke about utility charges and continue work this year to migrate permitting functions to a single portal, add inspections capacity and roll out customer-service training. No formal changes to rates or code were made at this meeting.