10-11-2023 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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STAFF REPORT TO: Mayor Fischer and Members of the City Council FROM: Bill Dircks, Public Works Director Chris Heineman, City Administrator DATE: October 11, 2023 RE: Ordinance 878, City Code Chapter 214 to Establish a Stormwater Utility Fund ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED: The City Council is asked to Conduct a Public Hearing and take public testimony regarding the proposed establishment of a Stormwater Utility Fund. Following the Public Hearing, the City Council is asked to consider adoption of Ordinance 878, approving the addition of City Code Chapter 214 to Establish a Stormwater Utility Fund in Little Canada. BACKGROUND: According to the League of Minnesota Cities, there are 198 cities throughout Minnesota that have established a stormwater utility fund, including nearly all metro-area cities. The need for dedicated funding for stormwater related expenditures in Little Canada has been magnified over the past few years as water levels grew to never before seen elevations. Twin Lake experienced unprecedented flooding in 2019, and a hillside washed out due to a broken stormwater pipe. City staff has also witnessed stormwater ponds forming where there hadn’t been ponds before. Establishing a stormwater utility will provide a dedicated funding source for ongoing stormwater maintenance throughout the City rather than using funds from the operating budget and utilizing capital improvement plan funding from the 400 Fund and 450 Fund which is the current practice. In 2023 alone, the City spent over $330,000 for stormwater maintenance and another $111,000 in stormwater management cost related to street improvement projects on Twin Lake Boulevard, Sunset Court, Sunrise Drive, and Spruce Street. Removing stormwater project costs from the 400 Fund and 450 Fund will improve the fund balance and enable the City of Little Canada to complete other CIP projects without major levy increases in the coming years. Nearly all street improvement projects have some stormwater costs associated with them. The City also needs to continue with our regular pond maintenance program and catch up on deferred maintenance projects in ditches, outlets, pipes, and other infrastructure. These types of projects often exceed $100,000 per year, and emergency projects can appear out of nowhere such as the Twin Lake flooding and the broken storm pipe in 2019. There is also staff time associated with stormwater that will be allocated to the stormwater utility. A stormwater utility would collect money from each property based on a formula established by the study performed by Bolton & Menk. The study established an Equivalent Residential Unit (ERU). An ERU is defined as the ratio of the average volume of surface water run-off generated