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To help implement the utility, the city
<br />"loaned" $585,000 to the public works
<br />department.
<br />Other questions remained to be an-
<br />swered. For example, would the user
<br />fee be added onto the customer's
<br />water bill or property tax bill, or
<br />would the property owner be billed
<br />separately? Many Cincinnati prop-
<br />erty owners already believe they are
<br />charged too much for their water. In
<br />addition, the water bill contains a
<br />sewerage service charge for the col-
<br />lection and treatment of sanitary and
<br />industrial wastes. If the fee for the
<br />utility were added onto the bill, v
<br />believed this would have a det-
<br />rimental effect on the public's percep-
<br />tion of the new utility. Adding the user
<br />fee to the property tax bill would be
<br />inconsistent with the philosophy of
<br />the utility concept as the user fee is not
<br />a tax and does not relate to property
<br />valuation. Therefore, we opted for a
<br />separate billing system.
<br />Rate Structure
<br />It was, of course, not feasible to at-
<br />tempt to solve the entire $50 million
<br />problem at once. A modest budget of
<br />$5 million a year for the total operation
<br />of the Stormwater Management Util-
<br />ity was deemed sufficient.
<br />Water Resources, Inc. examined 14
<br />com ma ions of ixe and varia le
<br />rates and recommended a scheme
<br />based on the rationa me )o o
<br />tia ing runoff. n
<br />m
<br />to t e system, the calculation takes
<br />into account the one its _er,)oyed and
<br />service receive Most nnportant y, rt
<br />was desig ne to be applicable and
<br />equitable for the entire city.
<br />To avoid making extremely precise
<br />measurements of each property, in -_
<br />eluding impervious areas, we
<br />adopted the concept o an rea
<br />` ange Number equal
<br />,t\ota of area m square ee ivi e y
<br />2,000 to represent the lot area. The
<br />ntens�ty o eve I opmen actor
<br />(IDF), which is related to land use, not
<br />zoning, is a measurement of impervi-
<br />ousness. The Equivalent Runoff mt
<br />(ERU) is the product of the ARN an
<br />the IDF. The ordinance established
<br />tFimonthly user fee at $1.28 multip-
<br />lied by the number o ERUs.
<br />After a statistical stu y of the 48
<br />neighborhoods, we set flat, annual
<br />rates for one -, two- and three-family
<br />pproperties (which make up 60 percent
<br />of a p-II roperties in the city). I his stud
<br />y
<br />justified assump ions at these prop-
<br />erties are "equal" and contribute rel-
<br />atively the same amount of runoff to
<br />the system. Two flat rates were estab-
<br />lished: one for lot sizes up to 10,000 sq
<br />ft and another for lot sizes more t an
<br />10,000 sq ft.
<br />The remaining 40 percent (48,000
<br />proper yes) wou ave a variaD e
<br />ra e s rue ure ca cu a e accor mg to
<br />the ARN and IDF. To calculate the
<br />variable rates, Woolpert Consultants
<br />was hired again to investigate prop-
<br />erty data and tax information from
<br />city sources and to generate a data
<br />base using a Synercom interactive
<br />graphics mapping and data base sys-
<br />tem. Using the county auditor's plats,
<br />Woolpert Consultants digitized all
<br />48,000 properties on the computer
<br />system according o e a s
<br />1?ook, page, and parce num er.-'1 he
<br />area each parcel was computed to
<br />begin creating the data base.
<br />To generate a master account file, a
<br />computer tape from the Hamilton
<br />County real estate files containing
<br />demographic data such as names of
<br />property owners, mailing addresses,
<br />zip codes, and land use codes was
<br />combined with the consultant's gen-
<br />erated file.
<br />In January 1985, the city hired a
<br />joint venture team, Coopers & Lyb-
<br />rand and Automatic Data Processing
<br />(ADP), to design, operate, and main-
<br />tain the separate billing system. The
<br />final master account file contained
<br />property owners' names and ad-
<br />dresses, billing addresses, land use
<br />codes, the property's IDF, ARN,
<br />square footage, and parcel classifica-
<br />For details circle No. A -121 on card
<br />152 PUBLIC WORKS for September, 1986
<br />
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