Councilors forward resolution to consider standardized stormwater agreements for four communities

Town staff asked the council to consider a resolution to accept four new standardized stormwater drainage agreements and the council moved the item to the full town council for consideration.

Jeff Netzinger, a town staff presenter, told the council the town began entering drainage agreements with large planned-unit developments in 2007–2012 and that those agreements were standardized in 2020 so new partners receive the same level of corrective-maintenance service. He said the town currently has 22 drainage-agreement partners and that the four applicants under consideration are Broad Creek Landing, Attucks on Jarvis Creek, Rebow Island and Victoria Square.

Why it matters: the agreements allow the town to provide corrective maintenance inside private communities where the town does not own the drainage infrastructure, but that support is conditional on legal easements and annual budget availability. Netzinger said the town’s role is to "provide a value‑added boost to help [communities] by fixing deficiencies when they occur based on a ranking of priority score," and emphasized the town does not assume ownership of private drainage systems.

Council questions focused on who must sign and what the town will commit to. Netzinger said each agreement is paired with an easement; without a signed easement the town cannot legally provide the service. He also described the town’s prioritization process — a 1–20 scoring system used to rank reported deficiencies and determine which corrective-maintenance requests the stormwater program will fund in a given year. Staff noted the program depends on contractor capacity as well as available funds.

Assistant Town Manager Sean Collin told the council additional communities are interested: four more had contacted staff and roughly 28 others could qualify in the future as construction finishes, meaning the program could expand beyond today’s partners. Staff warned that adding partners increases the town’s corrective‑maintenance workload only modestly in terms of linear infrastructure (one to 1.5 percent by staff estimate) but could draw down the stormwater fund reserve if many small projects are added.

Councilmembers praised the standardized approach. "It has to be standardized and evolve correctly," Councilman Stanford said, arguing the uniform agreements prevent piecemeal special provisions. Councilmember Ames moved to forward the resolution authorizing execution of standardized stormwater agreements for Broad Creek Landing, Attucks on Jarvis Creek, Rebow Island and Victoria Square to the full town council; the motion was seconded from the dais and moved forward for full‑council consideration.

What comes next: the resolution will appear on the full town council agenda for final action; staff said agreements require executed easements and that funding for corrective maintenance remains subject to available stormwater utility revenues and annual budgeting.