Council approves stormwater fee

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - The West Lafayette City Council voted Monday night to implement a new stormwater fee, but only for the next 20 years.

Residents will pay $8 a month for the stormwater fee. Non-residential property owners will pay $8 for every additional 3,200 square feet of property.

Just before the vote, the council voted 4-3 to create a sunset clause that ends the fee in 20 years.
    
The council voted 6-1 to pass the new stormwater fee, with Gerry Keen voting against it.

Keen voted for the fee on its first reading, but said since then, too many people came to him with concerns. He said there's still too many unanswered questions.

"There's a lot of questions about the credits. There's a lot of questions about exemptions. There's a lot of questions about ERUs (Equivalent Residential Units). There's a lot of questions about it that are left unanswered with this. It was stated that some of these questions won't be answered until a year or two down the road," Keen explained.

The public also spoke, some thanking the council for listening to their various concerns about the fees.

Two rental property owners said they were upset by the new fee. They both said they have already spent money building their own stormwater systems so they don't feel the fee is fair.
    
The stormwater fee won't go into effect until January 2014. Mayor John Dennis said the next step is to figure out the billing system.