HOPEWELL – The way that a consultant sees it, Hopewell has three things to consider if it wants to bring its water runoff management up to standard: double the monthly fee that residents and businesses have paid for the past nine years, do a major slash of the years-old credit on the fee given to the city’s industrial community, and move the payment to the real-estate tax bills so that property owners, not tenants, would be responsible for it.
For the most part, City Council likes the latter two suggestions much more than the first. Why? Because after raising both the property assessments and the real-estate taxes this year, some councilors do not want to take any more dips into residents’ pocketbooks so soon.
“I would not be inclined to raise the fee,” Ward 6 Councilor Brenda Pelham said.
Neither would Ward 2 Councilor Michael Harris.
“If we’re not struggling, then we must be doing something right,” he said.
Fees, credits remain unchanged after a decade
Their comments came after engineering firm CDM Smith presented its findings from an assessment of Hopewell’s stormwater utility system, the agency responsible for managing the drain network that carries water runoff from heavy rains and storms off roads, and curtails flooding and ponding. Since 2015, citizens, businesses and industries have been charged monthly fees attached to their water and waste collection bills, and while demand for improved infrastructure has increased significantly, those fee collections have not.
Residents pay a flat $4 fee. Businesses pay $4 for every 2,100 square feet of impervious, or non-flowable, area. Industries are given a 90% credit on their stormwater fees, which the consulting firm noted translates to an annual revenue reduction of $400,000.
David Mason, a CDM Smith vice president who presented the assessment to council, noted that when the $4 fee was initiated nine years ago, the original recommendation was for it to be $8.
“So, what we’ve seen over time is that revenue generated from that fee has not kept up at the pace of infrastructure renewal,” Mason said. As a result, he added, there was “very little money” to address necessary capital improvements.
In the 2024-25 fiscal year budget, Hopewell earmarked $905,000, of which $25,000 was targeted for capital improvements. Maintenance of the current system accounts for $525,000 of that budget.
The assessment identified $13 million in necessary capital improvements over the next five years to four traditional flooding problem spots – Richmond and Petersburg streets, Wagner Avenue and Joseph Hooker Street, Heretick Avenue, and the dam at Peterson’s Mill. Mason noted that there were “about 30 drainage-issue locations that exist without funding identified.”
As a result of the fees remaining unchanged, Mason said, Hopewell operates the stormwater utility system at an annual deficit of between $1.3 million and $3.3 million.
What did the consultants recommend?
CDM Smith recommended council consider three options:
- raise the fee from $4 to the original recommendation nine years ago of $8;
- reduce the rate credit for industries from 90% to 20%, which is more aligned with neighboring localities such as Petersburg and Colonial Heights; and
- move the fee collections to the twice-a-year real-estate tax bills that could alleviate the financial burden on tenants and lower-income residents.
A fourth suggestion – creation of a tiered-platform rate structure – was shelved because the city is insufficiently staffed now to operate one, Mason said.
While any increases or changes would not bring the system up to infrastructure standards all at once, Mason said they could make a dent in the deficit over time.
Because the assessment was on the agenda as a presentation, no action was taken by council.
Mayor Johnny Partin agreed with his council colleagues that raising the fee to $8 was probably not in the cards immediately. A more optimal move would be to move the rate up gradually over time.
Like Pelham and Harris, Partin said he also was a fan of reducing the industrial credit to the same level as Hopewell’s neighbors.
“I’ve always thought the industrial credit was extremely too high, but we never had enough support [from previous councils] to drop it,” Partin said. “The infrastructure now, unfortunately, is paying for it.”
Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Hopewell council asked to consider options to better manage stormwater runoff issues
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