The majority of residents who offered input on the city's proposed new storm water utility are against paying a new separate fee for the service, according to the results of a city survey.
More than 91 per cent of the respondents to an online survey soliciting feedback on a new separate utility fee to manage drainage from snow and rainwater indicated they would not be willing to pay the proposed fee that would amount to about $90 for the average single-family home.
In late 2012, city council approved the creation of a separate storm water utility to collect money exclusively for maintaining existing infrastructure, fund necessary capital projects, manage flooding and erosion control and support reinvestment in the aging system.
The utility fee would be used to reach a projected five-year average requirement of $3.85 million.
To achieve this, staff have worked on developing a tiered model where properties are charged according to their amount of impervious (or hard) surface area such as driveways, roofs and parking lots.
The average single-family home has about 313 square metres of impervious area, as measured by the consultants at AECOM. That base rate would be about $83.16 per year, with properties categorized as small charged $58.21 and large properties $116.42. Non-residential and mixed-used properties would be charged the average rate of $83.16 per 313 square metres of non-impervious area (or $26.57 per 100 square metres).
As part of the public consultation process on the new fee, an online survey was available between Oct. 18 and Nov. 15, and collected 545 responses. Two public meetings were held on Oct. 17 as were follow-up meetings with those who requested them. School District 57 and the Prince George Chamber of Commerce were the only two groups to take advantage of that opportunity.
When asked about a preferred method for funding storm water infrastructure, almost 57 per cent of respondents indicated they would rather stick with the current method of funding through the tax levy. Twenty per cent supported an annual flat fee charged for each property and 24 per cent were in favour of the proposed annual fee based on impervious surface area.
Eighty-one per cent of respondents also said $90 per year is not a reasonable amount to pay for the utility if it were requested.
If the fee is put in place, 73 per cent of respondents also said there should be a discount for property owners who implement measures to reduce the volume or improve the quality of drainage leaving their site.
"Many responses demonstrated a general concern over the city's current expenditure and allocation of tax dollars," said a report from the operations department presented to the city's finance and audit committee. "Survey respondents do not believe that the creation of a storm water utility fee would result in a corresponding reduction to their current tax burden."
A draft bylaw has been created, effective Jan. 1, 2015, but it has not yet been presented to council. During the 2014 budget process, council approved $350,000 to do the necessary work to set up the new utility.
