{"id":38356,"date":"2026-06-18T15:53:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T19:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=38356"},"modified":"2026-06-18T15:53:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T19:53:34","slug":"commercial-properties-could-see-new-stormwater-rates-based-on-run-off-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/commercial-properties-could-see-new-stormwater-rates-based-on-run-off-levels\/","title":{"rendered":"Commercial properties could see new Stormwater rates based on run-off levels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new commercial billing structure for stormwater rates is set to be considered for Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council next week will review a recommendation from municipal staff that could start the development of a new stormwater billing structure based on the amount of rain run-off experienced by the property in question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Development Intensity Stormwater Charge framework is intended to be \u201cmore equitable for all ratepayers\u201d and follows a motion put forward by Ward 1 Councillor Ron Weese to dig deeper into the situation as tenants at St. Andrew\u2019s Village are billed individually for stormwater rather than a flat rate for the entire plaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Town\u2019s current stormwater rate framework is built upon a tiered flat fee methodology,\u201d said staff in their report to Council, which was first presented at this month\u2019s Committee of the Whole meeting. \u201cThere are a few inequities and drawbacks associated with this model. Firstly, smaller commercial properties like St. Andrew\u2019s Shopping Centre are charged by the same amount as large industrial or bulk commercial properties. Secondly, properties that don\u2019t have a water meter are not charged a stormwater fee. This means the Town\u2019s metered property owners are also paying for the stormwater system cost obligations of all non-metered property owners. Finally, a stormwater charge is not demand-based, meaning it does not measure or charge based upon how much stormwater runoff each metered customer property produces and therefore does not motivate property owners to reduce stormwater runoff volumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA development intensity stormwater rate model addresses these drawbacks. The model charges properties for their proportionate share of the total stormwater runoff that may be produced within the Town during a storm event. Under this model, properties are categorized by their level of imperviousness and applied a different user rate for each category. Each property\u2019s stormwater charge is then calculated by multiplying their specific property\u2019s assigned category rate by their property\u2019s land area. The rationale being each property is charged for the stormwater runoff that they produce; the greater a property\u2019s run-off, the larger their usage requirement for the Town\u2019s stormwater system will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe proposed alternative stormwater model will address the other identified inequities in the present stormwater rate model such as those experienced by the tenants of St. Andrew\u2019s Shopping Centre and unmetered properties not sharing the cost burden of the Town\u2019s stormwater network.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should Council opt to go in this direction, the new stormwater structure will be ready for implementation by the Spring of 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, the St. Andrew\u2019s Village tenants will see a change in their structure as early as July 1 until the new measures are put in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s been a missing piece of the puzzle and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s been fair to the ratepayers so I am very glad to see it,\u201d said Ward 3 Councillor Wendy Gaertner at the Committee level, thanking Councillor Weese for bringing the original motion forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staff, however, cautioned that if Council goes ahead with the new Town-wide structure, there will be a lot of work to do before the implementation goal of Spring 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we will be working on and reporting back on a recommended structure in 2027,\u201d said Town Treasurer Rachel Wainwright van Kessel. \u201cBut once that structure is in place, it will take some time to actually implement because we\u2019d be looking at some configuration changes that, in our financial system, moving the data over from water billing to tax billing potentially, and then also having to do the work of [categorizing] properties so they are classified and charged appropriately will take some time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New rules could be a win for environment, taxpayers: municipal staff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9YE","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-09 13:00:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38357,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38356\/revisions\/38357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}