Title 15 - Public Improvements

15.06.020 Findings and Statements of Policy.

1. A.
   The City of Overland Park, Kansas, desires to create a Storm Water Management Program pursuant to Charter Ordinance No. Seventy-Nine.
2. B.
   A Storm Water Management Program will provide both general and specific benefits to all property within the City and will include the provision of adequate systems of collection, conveyance, detention, retention, treatment and release of storm water; the reduction of hazards to property and life resulting from storm water runoff; improvement in general health and welfare through reduction of undesirable storm water conditions; improvement of water quality in the Storm Water Management System and its receiving waters; the provision of a planned and orderly system for managing and mitigating the effects of new development on storm water and appropriate balancing between development and preservation of the natural environment.
3. C.
   The Storm Water Management Program will also initiate innovative and proactive approaches to storm water management within the City to address problems in areas of the City that currently are prone to flooding, protect against replication of these types of problems and the creation of similar problems in newly developing areas of the City, protect property in the City from stream bank erosion and the attendant loss of natural resources and the reduction of property values, conserve natural stream assets within the City, enhance water quality, and assist in meeting the mandates of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System as created under the Federal Clean Water Act and associated state and federal laws and their supporting regulations.
4. D.
   Both standard and innovative storm water management is necessary in the interest of the public health, safety and general welfare of the residents, businesses and visitors of the City.
5. E.
   Implementation of the Storm Water Management Program will require the expenditure of significant amounts of public money.
6. F.
   All developed property in the City will benefit from the Storm Water Management Program.
7. G.
   The City desires to fairly distribute costs of the Storm Water Management Program implementation among all developed property which generates the need therefor.
8. H.
   The City has determined that the establishment of a Storm Water Utility is an appropriate method of funding certain portions of the costs of implementing the Storm Water Management Program.
9. I.
   The City has adopted Charter Ordinance No. Seventy-Nine, which grants to the City the authority to adopt, by ordinance, rules and regulations providing for the management and operation of a Storm Water Utility, fixing Storm Water Utility User Fees, requiring security for the payment thereof, providing methods and rules relating to the calculation and collection of the fees and for credits against the fees, and providing for the disposition of the revenues derived therefrom.
10. J.
    The City commissioned a study that was prepared by Camp Dresser & McKee Inc., to assist the City in developing the Storm Water Utility and to recommend an ERU and an ERU Rate.
11. K.
    The Governing Body has evaluated the study and recommendations and hereby determines that the fees set forth herein are reasonable and necessary and should be implemented.
12. L.
    The Storm Water Utility User Fee imposed by this Ordinance, is calculated by a formula that reasonably relates classes of property within the City to their anticipated use of or benefit from the Storm Water Management System, and such fee is neither a tax nor a special assessment, but a charge (in the nature of tolls, fees or rents) for services rendered or available.
13. M.
    The City has researched collection options and hereby determines that in order to promote efficiency, eliminate duplication of services, and utilize the most economically feasible method of fee collection, the Storm Water Utility User Fee should be included on Overland Park ad valorem real property tax bills issued by Johnson County, in accordance with an agreement to be negotiated with the County, which will be placed on file in the office of the city clerk.

(History: Ord. SWU-2315 §2, 2001)

Effective on: 1/1/1901