County mulls expansion of fees for surface-water management

Published 7:36 pm Sunday, November 1, 2015

EVERETT — About 4,800 people in unincorporated Snohomish County might be paying new surface-water-management fees starting next year.

County Council members discussed expanding the fee-collection area during a hearing Wednesday. They’re set to resume the discussion at 10:30 a.m. Nov. 10, when they could take a vote.

The proposed changes would make the fees more uniform in areas where the county is responsible for controlling flooding and drainage. Tribal areas, forest lands and Hat Island would be exempt.

“One of the biggest issues is to have a viable funding source for services we provide,” said Gregg Farris, an interim co-director of the county’s Surface Water Management Division. “It’s also a fairness and equity issue.”

The county already collects surface-water fees from about 95,000 ratepayers.

The rate is $90 per year for a single-family home. On farmland, the annual fee is $90 per parcel. For commercial properties, it can range from $27 to $270 per quarter acre, depending on the amount of impervious surface, such as buildings or pavement.

The fee expansion is expected to add about $1 million per year to the Surface Water Management Division budget. That would bring total fee revenue to about $15 million. The division’s other major source of funding is grants.

Surface water services include: building and maintaining projects to stop road flooding; improving water quality and fish habitat; teaching landowners to better manage runoff; coordinating the county’s flood response; maintaining dikes; monitoring lakes; and responding to drainage complaints.

Most of the properties currently excluded from surface-water fees that could be included next year lie in three geographical areas: east of Monroe along the U.S. 2 corridor; east of Oso in the Darrington area; and south of Stanwood near the mouth of the Stillaguamish River.

“It looks like we’re adding a huge amount of area, but much of this is not developed,” said Karen Kerwin, the county’s other interim co-director of surface water management.

Undeveloped parcels are not charged a fee.

County Councilman Ken Klein, whose district covers north Snohomish County, said at Wednesday’s hearing that he wants to know what kinds of flood and drainage improvements would benefit property owners in the Darrington area after they start paying the fee. Klein’s colleagues agreed to continue to the hearing to answer that question.

A surcharge of $32 applies to single-family homes and farm parcels in urban-growth areas. That charge had been set to expire at the end of 2015, but county council members could choose to extend it through 2021.

Most of the property owners who pay a surface-water fee now would see no change, Farris and Kerwin said. Exceptions include some owners of agricultural land, who could see rates go down.

Homeowners near lakes Goodwin and Shoecraft in north Snohomish County have requested a rate increase to combat milfoil, an aquatic weed.

“Only about 1,100 would see any change at all and it would be in those two categories,” Farris said.

Under the proposal, the county would give property owners credit for fees they already pay to special taxing districts that address surface water, such as flood-control districts. Property owners would owe the county nothing if they’re already paying an equivalent rate to another district.

Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.