Wheeling's proposed stormwater fee would take effect in August

Wheeling businesses and homeowners will likely see a new fee on their water bills to pay for projects aimed at curbing flooding.

Charging a stormwater utility fee would create a sustainable revenue source, officials say. And a growing list of flood-prone towns have adopted the fee as a fairer alternative to raising property taxes, engineers told village trustees this week.

"It is a user fee," Village Manager Jon Sfondilis said.

Industrial properties with big parking lots would shoulder most of the cost of addressing flooding in Wheeling. That's because those sites have more impervious surfaces - roofs, sidewalks and asphalt driveways, for example - where rain, instead of seeping into the ground, flows into streets and the village's stormwater system.

The fee would be based on the footprint of such surfaces. So, in theory, the more runoff, the steeper the fee.

After a 14-month villagewide study, a committee of Wheeling officials and engineers have recommended charging property owners $6 a month per ERU, or equivalent runoff unit. The measuring stick, an industry standard that will be specific to Wheeling, initially adds up to 3,330 square feet of impervious surfaces for a residential lot, but officials haven't settled on the final ERU.

As part of the study, Christopher B. Burke Engineering recommended a list of flood-control projects to be completed over the next 30 years. With those costs in mind, the Rosemont-based firm suggested charging property owners a little more than $8 per ERU. But the committee backed the $6 fee, closer to the average charged by other suburbs.

"It still accomplishes the goal but isn't so drastic a cost to the residents and businesses," Sfondilis said.

In 2013, when the board started exploring the fee, officials said the village spends $500,000 annually to maintain its stormwater system.

"We were constantly taking from Peter to pay Paul," Village President Dean Argiris said of the village's response to "disasters" like the April 2013 floods.

The fee could raise more than $1 million a year, he expects. Seventy-five percent of the money would be earmarked for new projects, while the rest would go to maintenance of existing stormwater infrastructure and the annual costs of a state-mandated permitting program.

Trustees could vote on a measure approving the fee in April or earlier. Then, it would start showing up on water bills in August.

The village already has begun the "huge undertaking" of measuring impervious surfaces on commercial and residential lots, Argiris said. The village also will need to manually change 8,000 water bills to add the fee.