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Council debates property-value scoring and recommends changes to make stormwater grants more equitable
Summary
Councilmembers questioned using property value in scoring and urged changes to scoring to favor corridor solutions and increase participation; multiple members suggested reducing the city match cap to $30,000 and focusing year one on residential projects.
Councilmembers pressed staff on whether property value should factor into the scoring matrix, with several saying it would unfairly penalize homeowners. "I think the value of someone's property is immaterial to what we're trying to accomplish here," said Councilmember Larry, arguing that stormwater impacts and the city's goals are independent of market valuation. Several colleagues supported removing property value from the scoring rubric and instead incentivizing corridor-scale projects.
Members also proposed lowering staff's proposed city match cap of $50,000 per property to $30,000 to stretch funds across more projects. Council discussed prioritization mechanics (minimum qualifying thresholds, tie-breaker rules such as time stamps, and whether to reserve a portion of funds for preventative measures). Staff agreed to return with revised scoring options and legal and budget implications documented in a memo.
