(A) 
The City Council has found and hereby finds that:
(1) 
The City will establish a schedule of drainage charges against all real property in the City subject to charges under subchapter C, chapter 402 of the Texas Local Government Code;
(2) 
The City will provide drainage for all real property in the City on payment of drainage charges, except real property exempted under subchapter C, chapter 402 of the Texas Local Government Code;
(3) 
City will offer drainage service on nondiscriminatory, reasonable and equitable terms; and
(4) 
That, prior to the adoption of this article, the City Council caused to be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the City a notice stating the time and place of a public hearing to consider this article; the notice contained this article published in full and the notice was published three times before the date of the hearing, the first publication occurring on or before the 30th day before the date of the hearing.
(B) 
The provisions of subchapter C, chapter 402 of the Texas Local Government Code are hereby declared to be adopted and a municipal drainage utility system is hereby established by the authority of that subchapter and the home rule powers of the City under article XI, section 5 of the Texas Constitution. The drainage of the City is declared to be a public utility. The program hereby created shall be reviewed annually as a separate budget issue.
(Ordinance 4517, sec. 1, adopted 9/3/91)
(A) 
Municipal drainage utility charges are as designated in the Master Fee and Rate Schedule, Article VII, Section 10.85, of Chapter 10.
(B) 
For the purposes of this subsection, “impervious area” means any area not able to absorb rainfall, thereby creating stormwater runoff. In addition to any mandatory exemption provided by law, school districts, and property owned by a religious organization that is exempt from taxation pursuant to section 11.20 of the Texas Tax Code, shall be exempt from the charges established by this section.
(C) 
The drainage charges established by this section shall be billed to the user of the benefited property along with the bill for other utility services provided to the property. The drainage charges shall be identified separately on the bill as stormwater management charge.
(D) 
The City shall not require a deposit for drainage charges as a precondition to accepting surface flow into the drainage system. Delinquent drainage charges are subject to the same penalties and methods of collection as other utility charges of the City.
(E) 
The income of the drainage utility system shall be segregated and completely identifiable in the accounts of the City. The revenues produced by the drainage charges established by this article shall be applied to the funding of both operating requirements and future system improvements and other capital costs and may not be transferred to the general fund of the City.
(Ordinance 4518, sec. 1, adopted 9/3/91; Ordinance 4899, sec. 1, adopted 9/19/95; Ordinance 4984, sec. 1, adopted 7/1/96; Ordinance 6350, sec. 8, adopted 9/1/09; Ordinance 6423, sec. 5, adopted 9/7/10; Ordinance 6937, sec. 3, adopted 9/19/17; Ordinance 7086, sec. 7 adopted 9/3/19; Ordinance 7363 adopted 9/6/2022)