The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Board postpones vote on stormwater utility fee
Raucous opposition leads to tabling of matter till August.
The Cobb County Board of Commissioners changed course Tuesday night and postponed the vote on creating a dedicated stormwater utility fee based on the amount of impervious surfaces at homes and businesses instead of water usage.
The delay came after commissioners listened to hours of strong opposition during the public hearing on the proposal.
Commissioners said they plan to hold more meetings on the topic with community stakeholders and give the public more information before bringing it back for a potential vote in August.
Ahead of that, county staff plan to finalize a manual that will give credits on the fee for engaging in various flood mitigation efforts.
The board has been discussing the stormwater utility fee for years. Cobb County Water Director Judy Jones said she is disappointed in the board’s decision to postpone but declined to comment further.
Metro Atlanta long has grappled with a lack of investment in stormwater infrastructure. Paired with rapid development in the early 2000s, that has led to increased flooding. Cobb’s most recent severe flood damaged numerous east Cobb homes in September 2021.
Those floods left homeowners stuck with the bill for repairing the damage; the county cannot legally pay for those damages. The county is responsible for maintaining its stormwater system to help mitigate flooding.
The proposal would create a stormwater fee calculated based on each property’s amount of impervious surface, or hard infrastructure that does not allow water to soak into the ground. Commercial properties would see the largest increase in the fee, particularly those with large parking lots.
The delay also will give the county time to show property owners exactly what their fee calculation would be.
Currently, the stormwater fee is calculated as a percent of water usage through water bills, which Jones said does not fairly account for a property’s impact on the infrastructure.
Residents in attendance Tuesday night filled the board room and spoke for nearly two hours, with most against the fee proposal. Many urged the county to find other funding sources for stormwater management and to halt all new developments.
“If you can’t manage the stormwater that we have, then stop the building,” said Salleigh Grubbs, chair of the Cobb GOP.
Throughout the meeting, an increasingly unruly crowd shouted at the board and, in some cases, derided commissioners and other public speakers, prompting several rebukes from Chairwoman Lisa Cupid.
The Cobb Chamber of Commerce also expressed opposition to the stormwater proposal. Chamber leadership said in a letter to the board the stormwater fee is not fair to commercial property owners, who already pay significantly more in property taxes than residential property owners because of the homestead exemption.
While the chamber believes the county should address its stormwater management, business leaders fear the fee will “discourage private commercial development, harming our community’s ability to attract jobs and investment” and will “drive up the cost for redevelopment,” the letter said.
Meeting attendees applauded when commissioners voted 5-0 to table the proposal nearly five hours after the start of the meeting.
Cupid seemed frustrated at the board’s change of opinion but agreed to postpone the vote. She said she wants to ensure the board follows through on finding solutions to the stormwater issues that previous boards discussed but never properly funded.
“There is never a good time,” Cupid said. “This has been on the table for us for almost two decades, and we’ve only seen stormwater issues get worse.”