Cobb Delays Stormwater Fee Vote Indefinitely

The Cobb Board of Commissioners has indefinitely tabled the controversial proposed changes to the way the county charges for stormwater, citing a lack of consensus among commissioners.

“It’s important that (the proposed changes do) have support of the consensus of the board for this to move forward,” Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said at Tuesday’s meeting.

The board first voted to table the proposal in March, following a flurry of opposition from the public. The commission said then it would take up the fee in August, but voted 5-0 Tuesday to bump it to an undecided date down the road.

Commissioner JoAnn Birrell told the MDJ the county’s code has to be changed before a fee can be implemented.

“The code has to be changed or amended before we can implement a fee. The way that we charge for water and sewer is separate, not everybody has stormwater fees that have water and sewer. As far as the code amendments ... there’s a lot of components that need to be revised before we can go with this method,” Birrell said.

Birrell said while code amendments usually happen twice a year, once around January and again in October, that doesn’t mean the fee will be taken up again this October.

“We’re not saying this is coming back in October, when we do full-blown code amendment (changes). But because the motion to table it to August was voted on ... we had to get it off the agenda for August,” Birrell said.

As it stands, citizens pay a fee based on their water usage. The proposed change is to calculate the fee based on the amount of impervious surface area on one’s property.

Residential customers would pay anywhere between $2 and $12 for the fee per month, on top of a reduced water and sewer rate based on water usage. The county would reduce the water and sewage rate for residents because stormwater is set to no longer be included in that charge.

Non-residential properties will be charged based on the calculated impervious surface area, using a formula that considers the average residential unit to be 3,700 square feet, and the average fee to be $4.

For example, a business with an impervious surface area of 20,000 square feet would pay $21.62 per month under the proposed fee.

The proposal was introduced by Cobb Water System Director Judy Jones in November and came out of talks following the September 2021 flooding of east Cobb, according to prior statements from Commissioner Jerica Richardson.

But Birrell said she doesn’t think the proposed fee would have been able to help victims of that flood or future floods.

“This stormwater utility fee would not help that situation, because that’s private property,” she said.

Birrell added that her main opposition to the fee lies in the continued transfer of revenues from the water system to the county’s general fund. The county can transfer up to 10% of the water system’s revenues to the county’s general fund.

She noted that while the rate of transfer is set to be reduced from 6% to 5% in this year’s budget, she wants to see the elimination of the transfer entirely.

Before the vote, Cupid said the reduction in the transfer will further strain the county’s finances.

“We know that’s going to put some stress on how things are funded in the county and there also is some stress for how we’re going to continue to fund stormwater,” Cupid said. “... There will be a need to fund stormwater. We’re going to have to figure out how since it was not included in this budget. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t consider it beyond the budget that’s been presented.”

Cupid asked her fellow commissioners to be open to suggestions from Jones on ways to address stormwater in the absence of the fee.

“I just want to give the commissioners a heads up that (Jones) may be coming to seek your support on how we’re gonna fund stormwater short of having a stormwater utility,” she said. “... Taking care of infrastructure is very important and that includes our water infrastructure.”