Any approved changes will take effect on July 1.
WESTFIELD – The City Council’s Legislative and Ordinance Committee has launched a comprehensive review of the storm water runoff fee implemented on residential property and business owners last year.
The goal, is to complete that review this month with any recommended changes to become effective July 1, Ward 2 councilor James E. Brown Jr. said this week.
Brown’s committee has requested the Department of Public works to provide a tally of all revenue collected to date as a result of the fee. The committee also wants a report detailing receipts the city estimates it will receive annually and who the user fee will be spent.
“We estimate the city has already collected between $500,000 and $600,000 since the fee was created,” said Brown. “We want to see what the annual collection is estimated at and where and how the revenue will be spent,” he said.
The committee will meet to review those financial issues within the next two weeks and hopes to bring recommendations to the full City Council for consideration at June 16 meeting.
The ordinance establishing the fee assesses residents a flat $20 annually while commercial property owners are assessed a fee based on the size of paved areas and square footage of buildings. The rate is $1.60 per square foot with an minimum of $100 and maximum of $640 annually.
The issue, Brown said, is the fee assessed to owners of multi-family housing units who are assessed at the commercial rate.
“Their complaint is that their property taxes are based on residential rate not commercial,” Brown said.
“We are considering that issue,” the councilor said.
The fee was established based on a federal mandate that municipalities manage and control run-off water that enters area waterways like the Westfield River and Little River, city officials said.
The fee is assessed to property owners quarterly, amounting to $5 per quarter to residential homeowners.