Northfield looks to pay for stormwater management

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Updated: February 21, 2012 8:18AM

Northfield plans to seek community input on stormwater management financing options at future meetings.

Village Manager Stacy Sigman estimates the system the village “needs to put in place” to update its stormwater infrastructure will cost about $625,000 a year to maintain and operate, or about 5 percent of the current operating budget.

While the village could issue bonds to pay for such capital improvements, “we still need a source of revenue to repay the principal and interest” on those bonds.

Two revenue sources are being considered: property taxes and a stormwater utility fee.

Christopher B. Burke Engineering Ltd. analyzed how the stormwater fee could be assessed and suggested it be based on the amount of impermeable surface on each property.

“The assumption (is) the more impervious area on a parcel, the more stormwater runoff the parcel is generating and sending into the local stormwater sewer system,” Burke’s report states.

Thomas Burke, vice president of Burke Engineering, determined the smallest average amount of impervious surface in Northfield is on property in the village’s R-4 and R-5 residential zoning districts. He used that average, 2,750 square feet, as the base unit in a formula. He estimated property in the R-3 zoning district has twice that amount of impervious surface and property in the R-1 district has an average of four times that amount. Using the village’s 2012-2013 budget for stormwater management plus $4 million in capital improvements as the cost that had to be divided among all property owner, he calculated the smallest fee would be $81 a year, assessed on a single-family home near Bosworth and Eaton Street, for example. Using the same formula, homeowners near Sunset Ridge Road and Drury Lane (in the R-1 zoning district) would be charged $323 a year.

If a stormwater utility fee is used to generate funds, it would apply to all properties in the village, even those that are tax-exempt, such as schools and churches. Burke used aerial mapping and geographical information systems to determine the amount of impervious surface on the site of each non-residential site. The proposed annual stormwater fee ranged from $1,197 for Am Yisrael to about $23,800 for New Trier High School’s Northfield campus.

Higher property taxes are another method of paying for improved stormwater sewers. Sigman estimates the village would need to increase its share of property taxes 17.7 percent.

Thus, a person with a $10,000 tax bill would pay $177 more property taxes specifically for stormwater improvements.