Stormwater program needs more fairness

The city of Fayetteville has proposed a fee for stormwater utility management. While we can understand and support fees for stormwater management, we can not support the fee schedule. The proposed schedule addresses only one element of stormwater production — mainly the amount of hard-surface on a property. It does not consider the permeable area of a property.

For instance, a house on 1 acre of property should not be taxed at the same rates as an equivalent house built lot-line to lot-line. The house on a large property allows nature to slow and absorb the stormwater while all the stormwater from a lot-line to lot-line house flows into the drain system. Shouldn’t they be taxed differently even though the structures may be the same size? We propose the following:

1. Stormwater utility fees should be based on a ratio of hard-surface to permeable property size. A small house on a large property would have a very low ratio while a building constructed from lot-line to lot-line would have a very large ratio.

2. Low ratios of footprint to property size should pay small fees while high-ratio properties should bear the preponderance of the fees.

3. In future development, stormwater mitigation cannot be allowed to place additional tax burdens on current property owners. Each new property above a determined ratio of hardscape to property should be required to provide a suitable retention pond or pay a penalty rate in addition to other rates.

We urge residents to go to the Speak Up Fayetteville online site, www.fayetteville-ar.gov/ speakup, or call Alan Pugh, staff engineer, at (479) 575-8206, to express your opinion. Tell them to make the tax fair.

LARRY AND CATHY MEYER

Fayetteville