The Cobb County Board of Commissioners will vote this month on whether to change the way the county collects stormwater fees so the water system can better address an aging drainage infrastructure.
Commissioners have been discussing stormwater changes for years, and the issue came to a head in September 2021 when massive storms and flash floods were too much for the county’s flood mitigation system and damaged hundreds of homes in east Cobb and across metro Atlanta’s northern suburbs.
Currently, water and sewer customers pay for stormwater services based on their water consumption. Properties that use more water contribute a higher dollar amount to stormwater management, regardless of their actual impact on the flood mitigation system.
The county aims to change the calculation to be based on a property’s amount of impervious surface — concrete and other hard infrastructure that does not allow water to soak into the ground.
Properties that have more impervious surface will pay a higher amount because the excess stormwater not soaked into the ground goes into the drains instead. When the system has more runoff than it can handle, homes and businesses can flood, just like in 2021.
The board is considering a tiered fee structure for residential properties that would increase in increments based on the amount of impervious square footage. Commercial properties with more impervious surfaces like parking lots would pay a significantly larger fee because of their impact on the drainage system.
Judy Jones, the water department director, said the fee would help the county address its backlog of work orders and also be more proactive in replacing and repairing the infrastructure.
Several public speakers at Tuesday’s meeting expressed concern about the fee and how it would impact their water bills.
“This is not going to solve the problem. It’s going to make the county more money,” said east Cobb resident Pamela Reardon. “When this whole catastrophe happened a couple of years ago, mostly in east Cobb where I live, you took a problem and you didn’t solve the problem. The homeowners had to pay for the problem.”
“You guys call it a fee, but it’s really a tax,” said south Cobb resident Denny Wilson. “It’s gonna pose a serious financial burden to homeowners, especially seniors.”
Studies dating back to 2005 have recommended the county implement a stormwater fee. The floods in 2021 caused hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage, leaving property owners stuck with the bill, despite the fact that the county’s aging stormwater infrastructure was partly to blame.
The two Republican commissioners, JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill, have both expressed opposition to the proposed stormwater fee. Birrell ties her opposition to the fact that the county is still transferring funds out of the water system into the county’s general fund. She said if that money stayed in the water fund instead, they could use it to address stormwater issues.
The code changes, if approved, will create a framework for the county to implement a stormwater fee in a separate vote. The new fee structure would go into effect Aug. 1.
The county will hold several meetings to get public input on the stormwater code changes. The county will also hold a second public hearing and subsequently vote on the code changes on March 26 at 7 p.m. For more details about the county’s stormwater plans, go to www.cobbcounty.org/swfunding.
Cobb County community meetings on stormwater:
March 14 at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center, 6-7:30 p.m.
March 19 at the West Cobb Senior Center, 6-7:30 p.m.
March 20 at the Freeman Poole Senior Center, 6-7:30 p.m.
