These photos from 2022 show before and after the storm drain outfall repair took place in the latter part of 2022 along the American River Parkway near the Ambassador Park Drive entrance. Photos courtesy of the City of Rancho Cordova

 

RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - The City of Rancho Cordova recently sent out an “Official Property Owner Assessment Ballot for Rancho Cordova Stormwater Utility 1 Fee” and the final deadline to respond is next month.

The ballot asks each of 20,000 plus Rancho Cordova property owners to decide between one of two possible answers: YES, I approve the proposed 5-year stepped annual Stormwater Utility 1 Fee increase or NO, I do not approve.

The ballot measure is dated March 5, 2024. Although not much background is given on the ballot itself, considerable prior outreach has been undertaken and more is planned before the final deadline to respond to City Hall by 5 p.m. May 3.

“We had excellent engagement with participants at the focused community workshops and will continue to share information through our media channels to reach as many citizens as possible,” said principal engineer Dalia Fadl. “Receiving 700 protests indicates that our outreach efforts resonated with the community. Starting the process in May 2023 allowed us to engage stakeholders effectively and gather valuable feedback to inform our decision-making process.” 

The Stormwater Utility 1 Fee is paid for in an every-other-month billing from Sacramento County Utilities, which also includes other items unrelated to stormwater utility systems. However, the Stormwater Utility is the only item addressed in this ballot and the results will have no effect on the unrelated items.

“This Stormwater Utility was established in 1995 by the County of Sacramento . . . and it didn’t have an inflator on it,” said Rancho Cordova Public Works director Albert Stricker.

There has been no increase in the fee from 1995 to the present, which, Stricker said, is “astounding.” The current fee is not adequate to support the city’s stormwater enterprise. In addition, inadequate revenues generated by the current Stormwater Utility 1 fee have necessitated the deferral of capital improvements to the storm drain system, according to the Storm Drain Rate Analysis Report (Stormwater Utility Fee 1), of December 2023.

“When we start looking at over $100-million deferred maintenance and life cycle costs that need to be addressed,” Stricker said, “that ‘astounding’ word . . . turns into astounding challenges that we need to address from an infrastructure standpoint.” 

Of that $100 million, $50 million are specific projects listed in the December 2023 report.

In 2014, the City of Rancho Cordova took over ownership of the Stormwater Utility 1 system from Sacramento County and is now responsible for its operation and maintenance.

“Though the city has actually done, I think, a region-leading job investing in infrastructure,” Stricker said, “we inherited a huge amount of deferred maintenance.”

Whether the fee increase occurs, the billing process will remain the same, with the county collecting and passing the payments through to the City of Rancho Cordova.

As far as current and future development stormwater costs, Stricker said, “All of the new areas are going into a new district, . . . That one was set up properly by the city and it has an inflator.” A Stormwater Utility 1 fee adjustment would bring it into closer parity to Stormwater Utility 2 and would also keep up with inflation moving into the future.

The ballot proposes basically a choice between continuing to defer needed repairs and maintenance or beginning to address them.

“We talked a little bit about the importance of addressing the deferred maintenance, and the life cycle costs, because it would be cheaper (fixing it) now than fixing it later,” Stricker said. “It’s kind of like . . . fixing a part on your car now or replacing the engine later.”

The proposed annual fee with five-year implementation schedule is listed in the mailed ballot document. The amount is given as “Proposed Fee per DMU (Drainage Measurement Unit).”  The December 2023 report gives a formula used to determine the drainage measurement unit for a property.

However, Stricker said, “DMU comes into play when we’re looking at larger, commercial properties . . . This is how the rate is calculated for those commercial type properties.”  For single-family residences, he said, the annual rate listed is the annual rate, not calculated further by determining the drainage measurement unit.

“The Stormwater Utility Fee covers critical expenses for maintaining and improving our stormwater infrastructure, ensuring the safety and resilience of our community against flooding risks and environmental challenges," said Rancho Cordova City Manager Micah Runner.

For more information about the ballot measure, call the City of Rancho Cordova at 916-851-8700 or go online to CityofRanchoCordova.org.