HomeMy WebLinkAboutINS-11-052 - Stormwater By-law Housekeeping Amendment1
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Staff Report
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REPORT T0: Community and Infrastructure Services Committee
DATE OF MEETING: June 20, 2011
SUBMITTED BY: Nick Gollan, Stormwater Utility Manager
PREPARED BY: Nick Gollan, Stormwater Utility Manager
WARD(S) INVOLVED: All
DATE OF REPORT: June 10, 2011
REPORT NO.: INS 11-052
SUBJECT: Stormwater By-law Housekeeping Amendment
RECOMMENDATION:
That the proposed by-law attached to report INS 11-052, amending the existing by-law
2010-113, Storm Water Charge By-law, be adopted; and further
That Schedule "A" "Storm Water Charges" to by-law 2010-113, reducing the Storm Water
Charges by 10 % effective July 1, 2011, be adopted.
BACKGROUND:
On March 28, 2011, City Council directed staff to reduce the rates to be levied by the Storm
Water Utility, to be effective July 1, 2011. Further, in the past year a few housekeeping items
were identified in the original by-law which, if corrected, would lead to a greater degree of
certainty in the efficient administration of the by-law and the storm water utility in its treatment of
multi dwelling properties and to allow greater transparency to the by-law.
REPORT:
Overall reduction in rates: City Council directed staff on March 28, 2011, to implement a 10%
reduction to the rates charged to property owners in Kitchener to assist in reducing the overall
tax burden on the citizens of Kitchener. To this end, staff has amended the Schedule "A" to the
by-law in order to implement Council's direction. In the future, amendments to the rates set out
in Schedule "A" will occur as part of Council's annual consideration of the fees and levies,
without amending the by-law itself, as currently stipulated in the by-law.
Definition of dwelling/text amendment to Schedule "A": Since implementation of the by-
law, an issue has arisen with respect to the nomenclature chosen by the consultant retained
with respect to the creation of the storm water utility. Schedule "A" contemplates properties
being assessed based upon tax roll ID, on a per property basis. However, legal and engineering
staff are now of the opinion that defining a dwelling unit, and assessing buildings based upon
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the definition of unit will assist in bringing greater transparency to the by-law, and allow for
clarity with respect to how the fees will be levied. This is especially important with respect to
multi-residential buildings as it eliminates any ambiguity with respect to interpretation of the by-
I aw.
Although the By-law addresses the intent that: the storm water rate structure "had regard to
differentiating between classes of residential users based upon the approximate impervious
areas of each residential class", and that "the classes and rate of storm water charge set out in
Schedule"A" shall generally be based upon the impervious areas of a property and its land use",
some property owners are disputing the manner in which the rates are being applied.
Specifically, customers that own townhouse properties with multiple dwelling units on the same
parcel dispute being billed townhouse dwelling rates as the schedule created by the consultants
refers to properties receiving only 1 bill per one tax roll ID. These property owners are
requesting that they be billed a single bill or be bumped into a different category, contrary to the
intent of the by-law.
Legal and engineering staff have identified a solution to this problem by defining "dwelling unit"
in the by-law and amending Schedule "A" to state that billing will be "Per Dwelling Unit" instead
of "Per Property (Per Tax Roll ID)".
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
The proposed changes will not result in any increased costs to the City of Kitchener. It is
expected that there will be a modest increase in revenue for the City and will increase the
efficiency of the operation of the storm water utility. The increased certainty in the by-law will
also provide clarification to address some of the concerns expressed by property owners.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
Members of the public took part in a lengthy consultation process leading up to the
creation of the storm water utility in 2010. These changes to the by-law are based
upon some property owners misunderstanding the intent of the by-law. Eliminating the
ambiguity will create certainty in the marketplace.
CONCLUSION:
By-law 2010-113 may need further amendments in the future as other issues are identified.
However, these amendments are required to bring greater transparency to the manner in which
Storm water charges are calculated.
ACKNOWLEDGED BY: Pauline Houston, Deputy CAO
Infrastructure Services Department
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