The city council hereby adopts Texas Local Government Code Chapter
402 Subchapter C (entitled "Municipal Drainage Utility Systems");
declares the drainage of the city to be a public utility, to be known
as the City of Alamo Heights Storm Drainage System; and dedicates
to the drainage utility all city owned property, real and personal,
facilities, materials and supplies constituting the city's drainage
system as constituted on the effective date of this chapter and as
may be acquired in the future, to be used for the purpose of the drainage
utility.
(Ordinance 1817 adopted 4/13/2009)
Pursuant to the authority granted by Texas Local Government
Code § 402.044(8)(B) the drainage service area includes all land
within the municipal boundaries of the city.
(Ordinance 1817 adopted 4/13/2009)
A separate fund shall be created, effective as of the effective
date of this chapter, known as the stormwater fund, for the purpose
of identifying and controlling all revenues and expenses attributable
to the drainage utility. All stormwater fees collected by the city
and other monies city council may wish to designate for this fund,
shall be deposited in the stormwater fund. Such utility revenues shall
be used for the purposes of administration, studies, engineering,
construction, reconstruction and other reasonable and customary charges
associated with the operation of the drainage utility.
(Ordinance 1817 adopted 4/13/2009)
(a)
The
stormwater development fee is deemed a nondiscriminatory, reasonable
and equitable methodology to provide and fund regional detention,
watershed protection, land purchase, waterway enlargement, channelization,
improved conveyance structures and administration of the drainage
utility.
(b)
To be
effective on July 1, 2009, the city council hereby establishes a stormwater
development fee to be paid by users of benefitted property in the
service area of the drainage utility. The stormwater development fee
is a one-time drainage charge assessed to developers whose properties
are served by the drainage utility pursuant to this Code. The fee
shall be assessed for any construction that increases the total impervious
surface area (excluding public sidewalks) of real property.
(c)
For
undeveloped residential lots or residential lots where all of the
buildings were previously removed or demolished and no accurate documentation
exists for the size of the demolished structures, the stormwater development
fee shall be calculated at fifty (50) percent of the normal rate.
For example, if the rate is normally calculated at forty cents ($0.40)
per additional square foot of impervious cover, the stormwater development
fee for a residential project proposed on a vacant lot would be calculated
at twenty cents ($0.20) per square foot.
(d)
Exemptions.
The following real property, only, shall be exempt from the provisions
of this section:
(1)
Property
owned by the City of Alamo Heights and/or dedicated to right-of-way
for public streets and/or to provide drainage service; and
(2)
Property
with proper construction and maintenance of a privately owned drainage
or stormwater system wholly sufficient to provide all the drainage
or stormwater service for that property.
(Ordinance 1818 adopted 4/13/2009; Ordinance 1861 adopted 4/12/2010; Ordinance
1941 adopted 9/10/2012)
A stormwater development credit shall reduce the building permit
fees for any construction project which decreases the total net impervious
surface area (excluding public sidewalks) of real property at the
same rate per square foot as the rate for stormwater development fees.
(Ordinance 1941 adopted 9/10/2012)
