Chesterton Tribune

 

 

Rural residents can weigh in on county user fee Monday at 1 pm

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By JEFF SCHULTZ

On Monday, at 1 p.m., the Porter County Storm Water Management Board will hold a public hearing on a proposed ordinance to establish a Storm Water User Fee structure.

The meeting will be inside the County Commissioner Chambers at the County Administration Building, 155 Indiana Ave. in Valparaiso, Room 205.

According to a draft of the ordinance provided to the Chesterton Tribune by the Porter County Plan Commission office, all property owners located in the unincorporated areas of Porter County starting on Jan. 1, 2016 shall be charged an annual fee for use of the Storm Water Management Program based in part on the amount of storm water that is projected to be discharged from each parcel of property.

“The fee is intended and designed to assess users their fair and equitable share of the cost of the Storm Water Management Program in a way that is practical and reasonable to administer,” the ordinance states.

The intent to create the management program is to protect properties from property damage caused by flooding and to mitigate the impacts on surface water quality and runoff.

Once enacted, all property owners, residential and non-residential, in the unincorporated areas will pay a $120 annual or $10 monthly fee for each “equivalent residential unit,” or ERU, determined by the ordinance.

A one or two family dwelling on 0-9.99 acres is designated as one ERU; 10-19.99 acres is 1.25 ERU or $12.50 per month; 20-29.99 acres is 1.5 ERU or $15 per month; 30-39.99 acres is 1.75 ERU or $17.50 per month; 40 acres or larger is 2 ERU or $20 per month.

For multiple-family Residential, mobile home parks, condominiums, subdivisions, one residential unit will count as .35 ERU or $3.50 per month. If the owner has four residential units, they would pay $14 per month.

For agriculture, parcels of 80 acres or less would equal 1 ERU. A farm parcel between 80 and 160 acres will be 2 ERU and so forth.

Non-residential properties would be assigned a separate ERU rate per 20 acres based on its use. One ERU for Institutional will be $15 per month, Commercial and Office will be $17.50 per month and Industrial will be $18.75 per month.

User fee charges for contiguous parcels may be consolidated into a single fee account.

Properties under construction shall be billed to the parcel owner of record as of March 1 of the billing year. The builder or developer is responsible for the fee until such time as the property is sold or transferred.

After the first four years that the fee has been established, the fee structure and the ERU rate may be amended to generate more revenue not to exceed three percent annually of the established rate.

The fees will be included in the parcel owner’s semi-annual property tax bill. They shall be deposited into a non-reverting storm water fund.

Any property owner can appeal their fee up to 90 days after they are billed. The owner must show in their appeal evidence that their parcel is not impacting the storm water system.

Revenues can be spent by the Board for such purposes as acquisition of property needed to construct and maintain storm water management facilities, engineering and design, maintenance and inspection, public education and outreach, and other activities that go with managing the storm water program.

The ordinance states that the Storm Water board can by resolution establish a system of credits and incentives for qualifying properties that would reduce the fee charged. The Storm Water Advisory Council may provide recommendations to the board regarding credits and incentives.

The Storm Water Management Board consists of the County Board of Commissioners and the County Surveyor. It has been said by board members that the ditch tax being paid by parcel owners on regulated drains will cease with the implementation of this fee.

Residents and businesses within a municipality or a conservancy district paying a storm water fee already will not be charged by the County Storm Water Board.

The County a few years ago administered a comprehensive drainage study to estimate the costs to resolve issues caused by storm water. The most troubled area discovered was in the South Haven area where it is estimated that up to $18 million is needed to put in new infrastructure.

The ten priority areas the study named that would cost between $5 million and $10 million each for improvements include: the Damon Run watershed, the Bernhard Koselke Ditch in Liberty Twp., the Brown Ditch watershed in the Towns of Beverly Shores and Pines, Kemper Ditch in Pine Twp., the Duck Creek area in Wheeler, Ludington Ditch (Downstream Lake Eliza), Old South Haven, Dog Lake Ditch in Hebron, Smith Ditch in Valparaiso, and CR 700 W west of Swanson Rd.

 
 
 
 

 

 

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