New Port Richey plans fee hearings

By JENNIFER GOLDBLATT

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 27, 2001

NEW PORT RICHEY -- The City Council will hold three public hearings in August and September for property owners who want to have their say about a proposed stormwater utility user fee.

The proposed fee for all city property owners would pay for cleaning up pollution from stormwater runoff and tackling drainage and flooding problems. Money for those projects now comes from the city's general fund, the street improvement fund and local option gas taxes. The fee would cost residents no more than $3.36 each per month (about $40 per year) and would raise about $2.5-million in the next five years.

Commercial property owners would be charged according to how many Equivalent Residential Units their properties represent. An ERU is the amount of impervious surface of the average house in New Port Richey, which is 2,629 square feet.

More than 100 other governments in Florida have such fees, including Hillsborough, Clearwater, Dunedin and Oldsmar.

The meetings are planned for Tuesday Aug. 28 at 7 p.m., Tuesday Sept. 4 at 7:30 p.m. and Wednesday Sept. 12 at 7 p.m.

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