Pensacola increases stormwater fees for property owners by 50%

Pensacola approved a 50% stormwater fee increase last week for city property owners.

The City Council voted unanimously to approve the increasing the fee to $120.49 for each stormwater unit assessed to a property.

The city assigns a stormwater unit to a property based on its square footage in five different tiers. Most homes or buildings fall into the third tier, which is 1,601 to 2,500 square feet and is assessed at exactly one stormwater unit.

The city began charging property owners a stormwater fee in 2001 to pay for the maintenance of stormwater drains and treatment ponds and improvements to the stormwater system. Maintenance of the stormwater system includes cleaning out ponds and drains and street sweeping to prevent the drains from getting clogged.

City Engineer Brad Hinote told the council in May that the city has a "daunting task" to adequately address stormwater in the city, with a 2019 estimate showing the top 10 most important improvement projects had a price tag of $200 million, which adjusted for inflation is closer to $269 million today.

The stormwater fund generates about $3 million a year and the increase will add $2 million a year to the fund.

In recent years, the city hasn't raised rates to keep up with the growing costs of its stormwater system and declined to pass a 40% rate increase in 2021 that consultants said was needed to pay for the system's upkeep.

Previously: Pensacola residents could see a stormwater fee increase for the next two years

Since then, the problem has gotten worse, and despite a room full of angry property owners who came out to speak against the rate increase Thursday, the council passed the increase 7-0.

Some property owners came to the meeting upset that they were being assessed for a level of impervious surface that was too high. City officials said there is an appeals process property owners can use if they feel the number is too high.

Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said if the city did what needed to be done a few years before, it wouldn't be such a dramatic increase for people today.

"No one wants to sit up here and say that things get more expensive, and I certainly wish the city of Pensacola was immune to inflation, that labor doesn't go up, that materials don't go up, the cost of vehicles don't go up, that cost of clean stormwater ponds don't go up," Reeves said. "I sure wish that was the case, but it's just unfortunately not. And it's one of those other layers of pain that we're all feeling when inflation is the way it is."

The rate increase probably won't end this year, as the council was informed in May that a rate increase to $136.01 per stormwater unit will likely be requested next year.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola increases stormwater fees for property owners by 50%