Chester businesses challenge new stormwater fees in court
CHESTER » The board of the Chester Business Association on Friday began an effort to challenge the newly imposed Chester stormwater fee, which this year will begin to charge residents and businesses a fee for stormwater runoff.
Filing two separate injunctions on behalf of Widener University and Chester Charter School of the Arts along with “numerous other businesses in Chester who also wish to challenge the fee,” the CBA said it will file another legal action no later than Wednesday, Jan. 17, on behalf of these businesses.
“It is our belief that a large coalition of Chester businesses and proprietors will send a strong message to the court that the fee is illegal,” the CBA stated in a written release.
In November, the Stormwater Authority of Chester distributed letters stating that the base monthly payment for services would be $15.60 for stormwater fees.
A month later, the authority had a public meeting, which was packed with angry residents and business owners strongly voicing their displeasure. As a result, the monthly fee was cut to $8.25 to be paid quarterly starting this year.
Businesses in the city will be charged based on the square footage of their entire property, including sidewalks and parking lots. Their bills would be measured by Equivalent Residential Units, or 1,139 square feet charged at $8.25 per month.
“As some of you have already voiced, this additional fee has the potential to have a negative effect on the business and property owners in the city. Since one of the main duties of the association is to advocate on behalf of the businesses, after our discussion, the board unanimously voted to support our membership with their opposition to this fee,” the statement continues.
The authority was formed to bring a modernized municipal separate storm sewer system to Chester. Known as MS4s, this system is separate from sewer lines as they exist to move excess rain and groundwater from paved streets, parking lots, footpaths, sidewalks and structures.
So far, SAC has been awarded a $1 million grant from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority to support the initial $11-15 million needed for green street projects throughout the city. Some of those projects would include infrastructure upgrades to Chester High School, Eyre Park and City Hall. Some work that would be done at Veterans Memorial Park includes new catch basins, rain gardens, tree trenches, permeable pavement, turf fields, constructed wetlands and drainage improvements.
In 2013, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled a stormwater “fee” imposed by city of Jackson, Mich., was in fact an illegal tax because a public vote was not taken on the issue and it also violated the Headlee Amendment, which in Michigan states that “requires voter approval for any local tax increases or new taxes.”
In Pennsylvania, however, both state and federal law govern water pollution caused by stormwater. On the federal level, the Department of Environment Protection is charged with regulating pollution from stormwater as per the Clean Water Act of 1972. The state Department of Environmental Protection then provides grant money to counties to develop management plans for designated watersheds.
In Pennsylvania, Act 167, otherwise known as the Stormwater Management Act of 1978, “authorizes a program of comprehensive watershed stormwater management which retains local implementation and enforcement of stormwater ordinances,” per the Widener University School of Law.
The Delaware County Regional Water Quality Control Authority (DELCORA), the municipal authority that owns, operates, and maintains wastewater facilities that serve approximately 500,000 people in the greater Philadelphia area, including 42 municipalities in Delaware and Chester counties, stated in 2015 it would spend $178 million over 15 years for the water infrastructure improvements.
Residents already pay a monthly fee to DELCORA to mitigate stormwater, prior to the establishing of the Stormwater Authority of Chester.
Joseph Oxman, solicitor for the stormwater authority, detailed the difference between a tax, and how this new fee has a very deliberate application at the December SAC meeting at Chester City Hall.
“The difference between a state and local tax, is that it’s a payment that residents pay into the general fund,” Oxman said. This fee is for a specific purpose and there is no legal standard to dispute. It is mandated by law. We are supposed to charge a reasonable fee.”