Smithfield is part of the problem

On the one hand, the folks in Town Hall think Smithfield has too much stormwater runoff, so much so they’re debating how to raise money to control it. On the other hand, these same folks are writing rules to produce more stormwater runoff.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Earlier this month, Planning Director Stephen Wensman, in a presentation before the Town Council, floated the idea of tax of sorts on stormwater. Simply put, every household and business would pay a monthly or yearly fee based on the amount of impervious surface on a typical residential lot, essentially the square footage of the roof and driveway combined.

Households would pay the least because they have just one roof and driveway. Places like Carolina Premium Outlets and Johnston Community College would pay the most because their sprawling rooftops and parking lots equate to many residential rooftops. Under one scenario, Mr. Wensman estimated JCC’s bill at more than $30,000 annually.

(Of course, the money to pay JCC’s fee would come from state and county taxpayers, a group that includes Smithfield residents and businesses. Which means, essentially, that Smithfield residents and businesses would be taxing themselves to pay themselves. They would do the same for the courthouse in Smithfield and for the public schools within the town’s borders.)

Now for the other hand.

In the same month it floated the stormwater tax, the planning staff proposed — and the council approved — a rule requiring new residential driveways in Smithfield to be paved in concrete or asphalt. The rule applies to all new driveways of 50 feet or less, including those that are outside of town but within Smithfield’s planning jurisdiction.

Put another way, a town worried about flooding from stormwater runoff wants to create more stormwater runoff.

Again, you can’t make this stuff up.

Smithfield is already a town with an affinity for impervious surfaces. It prefers, for example, wide streets in new subdivisions, sidewalks on both sides of those streets, sidewalks to nowhere even, and longish driveways so that big trucks and SUVs don’t encroach on residential sidewalks.

Now it says that all new driveways must be impervious surfaces both in town and out.

Good Lord.

At the rate it’s creating and favoring impervious surfaces, Town Hall will need that stormwater tax sooner rather than later. It’s just unfortunate that residents and businesses will be the ones that have to fix a problem that Town Hall and Town Council are helping to create.

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