Storm Water Utility Timeline Not Finalized
Prince George, B.C.- The new storm water utility is on the books as a priority for City Council for 2014, but there is still a lot of work to be done on that issue.
The idea of the storm water utility is to collect funds from property owners based on the amount of impervious surfaces on their properties. That means there are areas on the property which cannot absorb run off, and the run off then flows to a storm water basin. There is a growing need to upgrade the storm water system in Prince George, and this new utility is deemed to best way to raise the dollars needed to make those upgrades.
City Manager Beth James says the timeline for the utility is not yet finalized as “there is some detailed work to be done around rates and rate structures and that is quite technical.”
It had initially been expected the storm water utility would come into effect in 2015. While that is still the target, a new implementation time line, along with a detailed public communications plan, have yet to be finalized.
Comments
No chance this council passes it before elections, unless they have no desire to run again.
I suggest they collect the storm water as they have done for some time, remove the impurities in it and sell it back to us.
Add value to what we drain away.
Then we can create independent storm water filtration projects ISWFP’s which will allow us to sell it back to the City grid.
;-)
I will dig a moat.
Of course, that will be followed by people complaining how the ISWFPs have caused the price of recycled water to skyrocket.
I have actually seen country roads with moats on each side. ;-)
I have this feeling we will be having some fun today on this site …… LOl
The impervious surface thingy is a distraction. Taxes are going up yet again with a new fee! Everybody within city limits will pay! Period.
It has zero to do with whether one has any runoff entering a storm sewer or not, whether one is even on a storm sewer or not, whether one is on sandy soil or clay.
(Confirmed by personal phone call to the city).
News Flash: Today the Sun Shine Utility will be imposed, you will be taxed by the amount of Sunshine falling on your Land !
If everyone got together for a class action lawsuit maybe we can stop the outrageous tax hikes. Maybe we can all with hold our utilities and property tax. We have to try to do something about the scary Shari crew!!!!!!
My son has runoff from city property onto his property. Will the city pay him?
“The idea of the storm water utility is to collect funds from property owners based on the amount of impervious surfaces on their properties. That means there are areas on the property which cannot absorb run off, and the run off then flows to a storm water basin.” – so I am assuming those of us who do not have a storm sewer system won’t have to pay this new tax? We have ditches in our neighbourhood and all those ditches culminate in one drainage ditch that runs down, eventually into the Nechako I assume.
“My son has runoff from city property onto his property. Will the city pay him?” – if so then I should become a millionaire because we drain our whole neighbourhood through our property.
Huh, a ditch is part of the storm sewer system.
I have a ditch surrounding half my property. I asked a city worker once upon a time ago if I could build a drawbridge. He guessed it would be OK if it didn’t affect snow removal. I can only guess how many hoops there would be to jump through for that to happen.
I think it is time for prospective candidates for our Nov. elections to step forward with their ideas and proposals and maybe LIES.
Tell people the truth and you will never get elected. “You can’t handle the truth”. Hollywood script writer sentence. He knows politics.
A detailed public communication plan AKA We’ll tell you how, when and why we will implement the new storm water utility charge and as no public hearing is required we won’t be having one. At last night’s council meeting Skakun made a feable attempt at requesting a public hearing on the matter, but as I said it was feable and I understood that if council’s wishes to have a public hearing on the matter they simply have to pass a motion and to include it. Councillor Khoeler is right this is a very controversial issue and politically risky if council allows the new utility bylaw to go ahead without a public hearing.
This city can have all the public meetings it wants. It would not change anything….
We already pay $800,000.00 per year for Storm Water through general taxes. So why do we need a Storm Water Utility??? This utility is being set up (in my opinion) to capture the money that we presently pay for the Winter Games. We will quit paying the Winter Games tax in 2015, and the City will continue to collect this money under a **phony** Storm Water Utility.
The City receives approx. $3 Million per year in Gas Tax Funds, to be used for various infrastructure projects that meet certain criteria. Ie; The Community Energy System. We are now told (magically) that we can use this money for road rehabilitation. So some of the money will be spent on roads in 2014, 2015.
However there is a devil in the details.
If one was to look at the Eligible Project Categories for the use of Gas Tax Funds, they would see the following:
WATER AND WASTEWATER. **Develop or upgrade wastewater and storm water systems to improve water quality and improve aquatic habitat**
This tells me that we can use the Gas Tax Fund money for upgrading our Storm Water systems, and therefore we do not need to implement a Storm Water Utility.
Why is the City not talking about the availability of this money that will be available for at least the next 10 years, and be increased by 2% per year.
Could it be that they want our taxes to pay for roads, storm water, etc; while they use this money for some of their pet projects?? That’s my guess.
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