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City engineer proposes stormwater-fee rewrite to charge commercial parcels by impervious area, not building footprint
Summary
City Engineer Holly O’Brien told the Montgomery City Council a proposed ordinance would measure commercial stormwater fees by total impervious area (building plus paved areas) to better reflect runoff, while keeping existing rates and the $3,000 commercial cap and $10 residential cap unchanged.
Holly O’Brien, Montgomery’s city engineer and director of engineering and environmental services, told the council she is proposing an update to the city’s stormwater-fee ordinance to charge commercial properties based on total impervious area — including parking lots and paved surfaces — instead of only the building footprint. “The federal government requires us to run this program, but they don't give us any money to do it,” O’Brien said, adding that the fee pays for inspections, permitting, education and engineering needed to comply with MS4 requirements.
The proposal would not change the per-square-foot rates, O’Brien said; rather, it would change the square footage the rate is applied to. “The rates are not changing,” she said. Under the example she presented, a commercial site charged $18.03 in 2025 would be assessed about $156.41 after measuring full impervious area under the new approach. Residential parcels would remain at $10 per parcel and commercial rates would continue to be capped at $3,000.
Council members sought clarity on billing and competitiveness. A councilmember asked whether the fee increase for a large parking-lot site would be assessed through property tax and whether nearby jurisdictions use similar methods; O’Brien said the charge would be assessed by the county tax assessor and noted peer cities (Anniston, Hoover, Leeds and Mobile) use impervious-area or parcel-area methods. Finance Director Ms. Bevill said any specific projects funded by the incremental commercial revenue would come forward as contracts on the consent agenda; O’Brien listed potential uses including hydrology studies, consultant contracts, construction projects, watershed modeling software and weather-monitoring equipment.
Supporters on the council said the change would produce fairer billing that aligns charges with actual runoff and would also improve the city’s technical ability to design flood mitigation. O’Brien said GIS and aerial imagery would be used to calculate impervious area and that small editorial wording changes in the ordinance would not alter its substance.
The council did not adopt the ordinance during the work session; O’Brien and staff said details and project-specific contracts supported by the new revenue would be presented to the council on future agendas.
