Preliminary figures suggest the average homeowner could be paying a little less than $90 per year for the city's newest addition to the utility bill.
On Monday afternoon, the city's finance and audit committee was updated on the progress of establishing a storm water utility in Prince George.
Currently, storm water improvements are funded through property taxes, development cost charges and sometimes through federal/provincial grants.
The creation of a new utility, which council approved in late 2012, would move funding from the general tax levy and into its own dedicated pot.
Consultants from AECOM have created a proposed rate structure, setting the base rate at $85.20, the average over a five-year span for a medium-sized single-family home. This average size is calculated to have 313 square metres (3,369 square feet) of impervious area, which are hard surfaces such as driveways and roofs.
Depending on the size or type of residence, that rate could vary from an average of $26.69 per year for a condominium to $116.22 per year for a large single family home.
The consultants also laid out some examples of non-residential property rates by calculating the average charge of $85.20 per 313 square metres of impervious area.
These rates were proposed to meet the city's projected five-year average of $3.85 million for storm water operation and capital costs.
"One of the concerns we have with stormwater infrastructure is that it isn't really funded adequately to maintain even some of the current projects that we need to build to help subdivision that are in need of stormwater facilities," said utilities manager Dave Dyer, adding that the funding is also falling short for reinvestment in existing services.
Last year, $316,761 worth of capital investment was put into storm drainage. A projected $2.7 million is required in capital spending in 2014.
Dyer stressed to the committee that the information in the report was just a proposal.
"This is a starting point," he said. "We have more to do, more examples to provide as we go into the consultation process."
Public consultation on the new utility is scheduled to begin in early October, with a draft bylaw expected to come to council by mid-December.
Background and technical information on the user-fee based utility will be available on the city's website when the public consultation begins.
