Last week at the Nov. 21, 2023 meeting of the Wake Forest Town Board, the commissioners unanimously approved the recommended rates for the new stormwater fees. They will have to approve the fees again because included in the new ordinance are the penalties for those people and businesses which violate the new regulations.
Stormwater is the rain that falls in town and is collected from streets by catch basins feeding into a network of drains which then empty into local streams — Smith Creek, Toms Creek, Richland Creek and Horse Creek. The water is not treated like the sewer water from homes, and it includes floating trash, oil, grease, unknown chemicals from lawn treatments and anything on the town streets. There are multiple outfalls on each creek, and the study found several in need of repair. The pictures are graphic, showing erosion and silting.
The stormwater group (see below) consisted of the stormwater engineering staff, local residents from a variety of private and commercial groups, and the consultants. Together they determined the most equitable way to provide a tax that would fund the new stormwater administration in the engineering department would be based on impervious surfaces. The rain on your lawn soaks into the ground and is not captured in catch basins.
There will be three levels of residential fees based on the square footage of impervious surfaces — roofs, driveways, patios — at each home. The square footage is measured in ERUs, in which one ERU is equal to 1,200 square feet of impervious area.
In Tier 1, which is expected to include only 10 percent of the town’s residences, there will be one ERU and the tax rate will be $45 per year. In Tier 2, which will probably include 70 percent of Wake Forest homes, the average ERU is 2.75 but can range from 1,500 square feet to 4,700 square feet and the tax rate is $125 per year. Tier 3 has 20 percent of homes with 5.25 ERUs (anything larger than 4,700 square feet) and the rate for a year is $235.
There are four tiers for non-residential buildings, which include multifamily, industrial, commercial, retail government and non-profit, with examples being a gas station where the ERU range is 1 to 22 and a tax rate under $1,000; a medium-sized building such as a bank with 23-44 ERUs and rates between $1,000 and $2,000; a large business such as a grocery store, where there are 45 to 222ERUs and the rate is $2,000 to $10,000; and an extra-large business like big-box store where there are more than 223 ERUs and the rate is over $10,000. Footnotes say that 25 percent of non-residential buildings will have one to two ERUs and will pay less than $100 a year in fees; 10 percent will have 3 to 4 ERUs and will pay between $100 and $200 each year.
Nick Nolte, a town stormwater engineer, explained how the non-residential fees are applied. “For example, if a non-residential property had 10,000 SF of impervious surface, you would divide that 10,000 SF by 1,200 and get 8.33 ERUs. Then you’d take the 8.33 ERUs and multiply it by the Tier 1 rate of $45/annually meaning that non-residential property will pay $375 annually.”
The fees will be on your annual Wake County tax bill along with the town tax on vehicles.
All this is based on the findings of the consulting firm retained by the Wake Forest Engineering Department, Freese & Nichols, Inc., and the local advisory group made up of Mike Almquist, a planning board member; Nicole Clift, property management; Andi Curtis, Wake Med, large business; Juan Montes, McAdams engineer; Nathan Robb, large business, Merritt Properties; Norman Bell, Villas HOA member and senior citizen; Brian Pate, Downtown and Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce; and James Holding, small business, Holding Oil.
Members of the Wake Forest Engineering Department also attended the group meetings: Monica Sarna, assistant director; Joseph Guckavan, director; Nick Nolte, assistant stormwater engineer; Samantha Sanchez, finance director, and Tim Bailey, public works director.
Together they found that the cost to the town for the existing stormwater services is $1,471,000 per year; the new services (staff and equipment) will cost $575,000 every year; and the capital improvements backlog will cost $10,050,000 to repair.
That $10 million will be spent on four studies: Richland Creek erosion, Smith Creek, Horse Creek and Toms Creek.
The impetus for the study and the new fees are new state laws and federal requirements.
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