Frequently Asked Questions About The City Of Lakewood's Proposed Impervious Surface Fee

What is an impervious surface?

Impervious surfaces are the hard surfaces on a property like pavements and roofs. These surfaces cause rainwater and snowmelt to run off the property into the City’s storm drains. During large storms, this water can overwhelm the City’s combined stormwater and sewer system that makes up our wet weather infrastructure and cause pollution to run into Lake Erie.  

What is an Impervious Surface Fee?

The City needs to invest about $274 million into upgrading and modernizing our 100-year-old sewer system to meet the regulatory requirements of both the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and United States EPA and prevent pollution from reaching the Rocky River and Lake Erie. Currently we are funding these infrastructure projects from the water and sewer rates we charge customers on their water bills, which is based entirely on the volume of drinking water a customer uses. However, water use is not connected to the demand a property puts on the City’s wet weather infrastructure.

The City is considering implementing an Impervious Surface Fee to help us recover the costs of these wet weather infrastructure improvements in a way that is more directly tied to the demand customers place on this infrastructure. The Impervious Surface Fee would be a small set amount for single family residential and small multifamily properties, since these properties have very similar amounts of impervious surfaces across the entire city. For large multifamily, commercial, industrial, and institutional properties, which have more variable amounts of impervious surfaces, the fee would be based on the amount of paved and hard surfaces each property has. The Impervious Surface Fee would be placed on your water bill as a separate line item.

What is driving the need for an Impervious Surface Fee?

Part of our City’s charm is that we are a pre-World War II community on the shore of Lake Erie, but beneath our streets is 100-year-old sewer infrastructure that is causing pollution to flow into the lake during major storms. To comply with the US EPA regulations, we must invest in infrastructure at a fast pace, and this means that a dedicated funding source is needed. The City is considering an Impervious Surface Fee to equitably allocate the costs of improving our wet weather infrastructure and more closely reflect each property’s demand on the wet weather infrastructure itself.

How will the City use the money collected from an Impervious Surface Fee?

An Impervious Surface Fee would help transition the City toward a sufficient and stable revenue source to effectively implement its Clean Water Lakewood Integrated Wet Weather Improvement Plan (IWWIP) that has been submitted to Ohio EPA. This will allow us to meet the requirements of the City’s NPDES MS4 Permit.    

I’ve never heard of an Impervious Surface Fee, do other cities have this? 

Charging for wet weather infrastructure in this way is something cities throughout Ohio and across the country do because it is the most fair and equitable method of charging for this service.

What impact will an Impervious Surface Fee have on my monthly bill?

For residential customers, the Impervious Surface Fee would be a fixed $2 fee on monthly water bills. Some multifamily, commercial, industrial, and institutional customers with lots of impervious (hard or paved) surfaces would pay a fee based on the amount of paved and hard surfaces on their property those that have large parking areas or rooftops, because these surfaces place a greater demand on the City’s wet weather infrastructure.

If approved, when would I see the Impervious Surface Fee on my water bill? The Impervious Surface Fee requires approval by City Council. If approved, it would be implemented January 1, 2022.

I rent my home and pay a water bill; will I pay this fee or does the property owner pay it?

The Impervious Surface Fee will be assessed on your water bill, regardless of whether you are the property owner. We are aware that some properties in Lakewood have more than one household living there. In this case you would be billed for only your portion of the property’s total Impervious Surface Fee.

If I reduce the amount of impervious surface on my property, can I get a reduction in the fee?

Currently, the City is not providing a way for property owners to receive a reduction in the Impervious Surface Fee for reducing the amount of impervious surfaces, although we are considering this for the future.

What is the City of Lakewood doing to keep my water bill affordable?

The pandemic has created many challenges for residents and businesses and the City is seeking to balance the regulatory requirements coming from Ohio EPA with charging fairly and affordably for improving our wet weather infrastructure. We are very hopeful that some of the funding that we will receive from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) can be used to help reduce the impact of recent water and sewer rate increases on our customers. Community input during the development of the City’s plan to address the US EPA’s regulatory requirements showed the need to prioritize affordability. To help advocate for our residents and businesses we have reviewed the City’s ability to pay for the required infrastructure projects and analyzed the timing and impact of these projects on our residents from an affordability standpoint. The results of our analysis were part of our plan to meet regulatory requirement and showed that a dedicated Impervious Surface Fee is the best approach to recover the costs of wet weather management equitably, in a way that more closely reflects each property’s demand on the City’s wet weather infrastructure.

Will the City be using the American Rescue Plan Act funding to help address this issue? 

The City is expecting $47 million from ARPA. This relief funding will help our City and its residents and businesses to overcome the damage being caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A large portion of ARPA funding will be eligible to be dedicated to improving the City’s 100-year-old sewer system and may offset our customer’s cost for the improvements. ARPA funding will be a big help—but it will not come close to covering all the needs the City has.

Where can I get more information?

Lakewood has sought input from the community on all aspects of the Clean Water Lakewood program, the IWWIP, and the consideration of an Impervious Surface Fee and will continue to do so. We want residents and businesses to understand Lakewood’s efforts to update our wet weather infrastructure to meet the requirements of the US EPA regulations and the actions private property owners can takto mitigate wet weather impacts. We hope you will join us for a community conversation on this topic on June 16 at 7 pm. More information is available at onelakewood.com/cleanwaterlakewood.