Stormwater Utility Billing and Collections

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Stormwater Utility Billing and Collections

• Keith Readling, PE
• Vice President
• AMEC Earth Environmental
• 101 W. Friendly Avenue, Suite 603
• Greensboro, NC 27401
• [phone]

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Public
Program
Finance
Database
DATABASE
DEFINE PUBLIC
PROBLEMS, NEEDS
FUNDING
POLICY ISSUES
INFO ED PLAN
AND GOALS
LEGAL ISSUES
PROGRAM
STAKEHOLDERS
DATA, MATERIALS
FUNDING
PRIORITIES
INFORMATION
GEN EDUCATION
POLICY ISSUES
OBJECTIVES
MASTER
RATE STRUCTURE
COST OF SERVICE
ACCOUNT FILE
ANALYSIS
ANALYSIS
BILLING DATA
RATE STUDY
ORGANIZATIONAL
BILLING SYSTEM
CASH FLOW
ISSUES
DEVELOPMENT
ANALYSIS
UTILITY
INQUIRY AND
RATE
IMPLEMENTATION
IMPLEMENTATION
COMPLAINT
ORDINANCE
CAMPAIGN
STEPS
RESPONSE
UTILITY IMPLEMENTATION CUSTOMER SERVICE
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Stormwater Utility DataInvolves Many Departments
Within a Local Government

• GIS (data directly forming the basis for billing)
• Tax Assessor (info for classifying parcels,
  potential billing mechanism)
• Utility Billing System (potential billing
  mechanism)
• Photography
• Parcels

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Billing for Stormwater The Basic Premise

• The basis for billing is often the amount of
  Impervious Area per Parcel
• Digital parcels and impervious data layers are
  the key components in this type of stormwater fee
  calculation
• The Simple Impervious rate method is based solely
  on impervious area
• Other rate methods exist that involve the Gross
  Area of a parcel, estimation of development of a
  parcel, etc.

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Cadastral (Parcel) Data

• Probably the single most important data element
  within the Data Track of the utilitycan make or
  break the utilityerrors in this data piece will
  have a ripple effect across the utility
• Parcel boundary represents the absolute area for
  potential stormwater billing
• Horizontal Accuracy?evolved from tax maps, COGO?
• Accurate Parcel Identification Numbers (PINs)?
• Current?
• How are attached residential structures such as
  condos or townhouses mapped?

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Parcel Accuracy Issues - Spatial
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Parcel Accuracy Issues PIN errors
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Impervious Data Layer

• Typically comprised partially of various
  planimetric data layers, or generated solely by
  heads up digitizing of aerial imagery
• Usually includes building footprints, parking
  lots, driveways, runways, taxiways, aprons,
  sidewalks, patios, athletic courts, storage
  tanks, other hardened surfaces
• Simple Impervious rate methodology does not
  differentiate levels of imperviousness

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Aerial Imagery (1.0 resolution)
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Impervious Data Layer
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Parcel Classification Single-Family Residential
and Non Single-Family Residential

• Often, impervious area per parcel is only
  calculated for non single-family residential
  (NSFR) properties
• Single-family residential (SFR) properties are
  often all assigned a flat rate
• NSFR properties usually represent only 10-20 of
  total parcels

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Sample Percentages of NSFR Parcels forother
Stormwater Utilities
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Flat Rate for SFR Parcels?(one of many Policy
Decisions made early in the process)

• Flat Rate for SFR Parcels is commonrelatively
  little variation in impervious area when compared
  to NSFR Parcels
• Entity must have complete impervious data for all
  parcels if a flat rate for SFR is not
  employedsignificant costs to generate impervious
  data layer if it doesnt already exist
• If impervious data for all parcels is available,
  SFR parcels are billed in tiers
• Ex. Tier 1 lt 2,500
• Tier 2 gt 2,500 and lt 4,000
• Tier 3 gt 4,000

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Stormwater Fee Calculation The Equivalent
Residential Unit (ERU)

• Represents the average amount of impervious area
  found on an SFR parcel
• Represents the billing unit for stormwater
• Derived by finding the MEDIAN impervious area in
  a sample of SFR parcels or a complete census of
  SFR parcels
• ERU values across the country typically range
  from 1,800 to nearly 4,000

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Fee Calculation
ERU 2,500 Rate 3.00
Impervious Area 54,256 sq.ft. 54,256 / 2,500
21.706 round up to 22 (billing units or
ERUs) 22 x (3.00) 66.00 / month or 792.00
/ year
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Complex Fee Calculations
ERU 2,500 Rate 3.00
Total Impervious Area 96,950 sq.ft. for 10
Units within Common Parcel 96,950 / 2,500
38.78 round up to 39 (billing units or ERUs) 39
x (3.00) / 10 (units) 11.70 / month or
140.40 / year per Unit
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Billing Mechanism Pros and Cons

• Tax Bill
• Stormwater utility is parcel-based
• Annual billing relieves pressure for daily
  account maintenance
• Stormwater fee resembles a tax
• Less desirable cash flow
• Decreased ability to enforce non payment of
  stormwater fee
• Tax-exempt parcels

• Utility Billing
• Stormwater fee is billed with other utility fees
• Utility System can enforce non-payment
• Good cash flow
• Utility Billing System is not parcel-basedtechnic
  ally complex initial translation
• Demands daily attention

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Utility Billing Challenges Many to 1 Situations
4 Parcels associated with 1 utility service
location
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Utility Billing Challenges 1 to Many Situations
1 parcel associated with 22 utility service
locations
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Utility Billing Challenges Many to Many
Situations
263 Parcels and over 50 associated utility
service locations with multiple owners
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Stormwater Billing and CollectionsLessons
Learned on Account Setup

• Flat rates for residential single family detached
• Tiered residential rates
• Owners vs. tenants
• Duplexes, triplexes, quads
• Condominiums and townhouses
• Tax-exempt properties
• Many1 situations
• Government properties
• Credits

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Stormwater Billing and CollectionsLessons
Learned on Account Maintenance

• Building permits and planimetric features
• New photography
• Tiered residential rates
• Customer service by phone
• Customer service maps
• Credits

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Questions