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Town of North East reviews storm water fee mechanics, delays decision
Summary
Town officials reviewed Ordinance 2019-05-01, the ERU methodology and consultant recommendations for funding a state-required storm water treatment program, but deferred any decision pending additional information from staff.
Town Administrator Melissa Cook-MacKenzie summarized the origins and mechanics of the Town of North East's storm water management utility fee at a workshop on Aug. 13, saying the fee was created by Ordinance 2019-05-01 and remains under review.
Cook-MacKenzie told the Mayor and Commissioners that during the Fiscal Year 2020 budget discussions the board reduced the storm water program budget from an estimated $400,000 to $160,000 to cover preliminary design and engineering work and permit-related activities such as education and outreach tied to a 26-acre treatment requirement noted in the workshop materials.
The administrator reviewed how the fee would be assessed under the ordinance: the consultant's study set an equivalent residential unit (ERU) at 1,180 square feet of impervious surface. Under that method, all typical residential parcels (single-family homes, townhomes, duplexes and condominiums) would be charged one ERU; commercial, industrial, apartment complexes and tax-exempt properties would be assigned ERUs by dividing the parcel's impervious surface area by 1,180 and rounding up. The town's consultant used the Cecil County Geographic Information System (GIS) database to measure impervious area.
Workshop materials summarized two funding approaches to meet the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) treatment mandate: increasing the real property tax rate or establishing a storm water utility fee. According to the consultant's summary presented to the board, a tax increase is administratively simpler but tends to place a disproportionate share of the cost on residential property owners because tax-exempt properties with large impervious areas would not pay; a storm water utility fee is described as more equitable because it allocates cost by impervious surface and would require tax-exempt properties to pay, but the consultant noted that a new fee could be harder for some property owners to understand.
No vote or formal policy decision was taken. Cook-MacKenzie said she, the assistant town administrator, the director of finance and town staff would gather additional information for the next scheduled workshop and invited board members to submit follow-up questions by email. Vice-Mayor Kimberly Davis moved to adjourn; Commissioner Hilary A. Crothers-Moore seconded and the motion was approved by all present. The meeting adjourned at 6:45 P.M.
The workshop record lists Mayor Kelly Benson; Vice-Mayor Kimberly Davis; Commissioners Hilary A. Crothers-Moore and Catherine Bernard-Dutton; Assistant Town Administrator Grant Handley; and Town Clerk Stephanie Racine-Dean. Commissioner Neil DeMatt was noted as absent.
