Council reaffirms water protection ordinance / stormwater utility fee

At their meeting on June 17, Charlottesville City Council adopted two resolutions related to the conveyance of rainfall across the built environment after holding two public hearings that were not advertised as such in the agenda. 

“We have two items before you this evening,” said James Freas, the Deputy City Manager for Operations. “I can do them both together or one at a time.”

“But both require public hearings?” asked Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston who ran the meeting in Mayor Juandiego Wade’s absence. 

“Yes sir,” Freas responded. 

While the online agenda did not indicate the public had an opportunity to speak at either, these were legally advertised in the classifieds section of the June 15 edition of the Daily Progress, a newspaper owned by an out-of-state corporation. Non-subscribers can still look through these legally-mandated advertisements at Public Notice Virginia.

Freas explained what was at issue.

“About a year ago, the State Water Control Board adopted new regulations that combined the Virginia Erosion and Sediment Control program and the Virginia Stormwater Management Program,” Freas said. 

Charlottesville is one of several localities with a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System permit, or MS4 permit. The new rules gave the city and other places a year to update their ordinances to reflect the new combined regulatory authority. 

“We used the model ordinance that they published for us for all communities as our baseline and then we rolled into that the more stringent requirements that we have here in Charlottesville,” Freas said. “For example, when the thresholds for when erosion and sediment control requirements are triggered or stormwater management requirements are triggered.”

The second item also cleans up the city’s ordinance to make sure one of the city’s revenue-generating fees complies with the regulations.

“Since 2014, the city has had a stormwater utility fee which we use those funds for our water resource protection program, basically to repair and replace public stormwater infrastructure, to implement capital programs and improvements, and things like that,” Freas said. 

Property owners pay the fee twice a year based on a calculation of how much impervious surface is on the land. That includes rooftops, driveways, and other items with materials that cause water to move faster, increasing the possibility of erosion. 

Freas said another item in the clean-up is to reflect that management of the stormwater fee has been moved out of Public Works and into the Utilities Department. 

Council waived the necessary second reading in order to meet the June 30 deadline. There was also an error in the packet.

“The ordinance that was in the packet did have a date in it of June 18 for the public hearing, but the public hearing was advertised for the 17th which is tonight so we are in compliance,” said Kyna Thomas, the City Council Clerk. 

No one spoke at either public hearing. 

• The staff report for the first ordinance change does not include the phrase “public hearing” (see for yourself)
• The staff report for the second ordinance change also did not include the phrase “public hearing” (take a look)
• A second reading of an ordinance can be waived with a supermajority vote of four out of five votes and that happened for this meeting. 

According to the adopted FY2024 budget, the city has collected just under $2 million a year in fees dating back to fiscal year 2020. According to the city’s budget explorer, there are 11 employees classified as being in stormwater operations. That same page states that over 50,544 linear feet of stormwater pipes were rehabilitated in 2023 and 6,175 were replaced.

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