It’s a tax, but a useful tax.
The City’s infrastructure is crumbling (as is the country’s) and this is a reasonable way to address those concerns. There is so much old infrastructure in the City of Charlottesville (and Albemarle and everywhere else in the US) that at some point, it’s reasonable to start fixing it. If you live in an older home, you may want to consider thinking about the line from the house to the street.
Charlottesville Tomorrow reports:
Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, property owners will be billed a twice-yearly fee of $1.20 per 500 square feet of impervious surface on a site. The money will allow the city to increase funding for its water resources protection program from $945,000 a year to more than $2.5 million.
If this tax is actually applied to upgrading water and sewer infrastructure and is sunset after a reasonable period of time (10 years?) it makes sense to have property owners (churches have impervious surfaces, too) contribute.
For those who own or are contemplating owning property in the City (may I suggest 1507 Gentry?) go to the City of Charlottesville’s nifty new GIS page and look at the bottom for an estimate of how much your storm water fee will be.
(note: the “click here” goes here)
Jim- old house/new house/somewhere in between should think about that line from the street. We had to repaid ours last Fall and our house is 12-13 years old. Even a minor repair is not cheap.
@49ed75fdbc81558cd9b4fff86564f909:disqus Aargh I am so sorry. Looks like I’m going to start recommending a plumber’s camera-snaking for all of my buyers …
The quote’s context could be clearer. The fee is billed semi-annually, but the fee is $1.20/500ft each month or $14.40/500ft annually.
Thanks for the clarification, Art.