Stormwater Funding Review

• Single-Family Detached Homes (urban and rural):  (urban and rural): If you live in a single-family detached home, you will be charged a fixed fee – one billing unit. ThisTownhouse and duplex dwelling units will pay 0.5 billing units per dwelling unit, and triplexes, four plexes, five plexes, and six plexes will pay 0.3 billing units per dwelling unit. These categories will be taken from Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) assessments
• Industrial, Commercial, Institutional, Agricultural, and Multi-Family Properties (with more than six units): For these property types, the fee will be based on the actual impervious area of each individual property (the impervious area is the hard surfaces on a property, like a roof and an asphalt or concrete driveway). The City has measured the impervious area using aerial photography.

Stormwater fee = Number of billing units1 X rate for 1 billing unit (rates will be determined annually by Council)

*Average impervious area for a single-family detached home was determined by measuring a statistically relevant number of homes from across the City using aerial imagery.

When the stormwater fee is implemented, properties that are connected to the City’s sewer system will no longer be charged for stormwater services through their wastewater utility fee.

Instead, all properties (including those that are not connected to the City’s wastewater system) will see a separate stormwater fee on their utility bill. Wastewater rates will be reduced by around 20% when the stormwater fee is implemented.

We know that some people with large properties are worried about how the new stormwater fee will affect them. That’s why the City will be offering a Green Space credit. This credit will help to reduce the stormwater fee for properties that have a large amount of green space, like forests and fields. This credit will be applied automatically to eligible properties without the need for a credit application. 

The City invests millions of dollars per year in stormwater services for rural parts of Hamilton, which provides valuable benefits to the rural community. But some rural and farm owners do not pay into this funding system. We believe a fair solution would be to have all property owners contribute through the stormwater fee. This way, everyone helps pay for managing stormwater, whether you live in downtown or rural Hamilton.

The City’s stormwater program includes important work in the rural areas to keep the system working well:

• City staff inspect, fix and clean assets like culverts, stormwater ponds and ditches. They also reshape ditches to better catch dirt and mud and address invasive species. 
• The City takes care of natural watercourses, like streams and wetlands, inspecting, cleaning them of debris and sediment, and fixing places where the water is eroding the land. 
• The City addresses water quality issues from pollutants that include high levels of nutrients like phosphorus. 
• The City also contributes millions of dollars each year to Conservation Authorities, which address watershed management issues in rural and urban areas.

The City invests millions of dollars per year in stormwater services for rural parts of Hamilton, which provides valuable benefits to the rural community. Right now, much of this work is paid for through City water and wastewater rates. But some rural and farm owners do not pay into this funding system. We believe that a fair solution would be to have all property owners contribute through the stormwater fee. This way, everyone helps pay for managing stormwater, whether you live in downtown or rural Hamilton.

A rural property with just a house (e.g., no commercial, industrial or agricultural buildings) will be charged as a residential property and will pay the same as any other house within the City of Hamilton. A farm property with just outbuildings like barns and greenhouses will be treated as non-residential and will be charged based on how much of the land is covered by hard surfaces (like roofs and paved areas) and how much is green space.  

Since many agricultural properties have both a house and outbuildings, the stormwater fee for those properties will be calculated using a hybrid approach. The house will be charged the residential fee, and the outbuildings will be charged as non-residential.  

Like other properties in Hamilton, residential-only rural properties would be eligible for the Rain Ready Rebate program offered through Green Venture, and farms would be eligible for the approved Green Space Credit.  

For property owners not currently receiving a water/wastewater utility bill, they will begin to receive a stormwater only utility bill when the stormwater fee is implemented. A property that is undeveloped (like fields or gardens), with no hard surfaces will not be charged any fee.

Not only do ditches and culverts serve municipal roads used to access rural properties, but they also serve private roads and overland flow from rural properties.  They also convey run-off from rural driveways and rural green spaces when the ground is saturated or frozen.

The City owns and maintains 1,500 km of ditches and 3,500 culverts. The City’s stormwater program includes important work in the rural areas to keep this system working well. City staff inspect, fix and clean ditches and culverts. They even reshape ditches to better catch dirt and mud. Staff maintain more than 30km of ditches each year, regularly patrolling and documenting issues, and dealing with issues based on priority. So you may not see activity in your area unless there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

Hamilton's new stormwater fee is designed with fairness and simplicity in mind. There are over 120,000 single-family homes in Hamilton – this makes up 84% of all properties. Charging each residential property owner a different fee based on the actual measured amount of hard surfaces on their property (like driveways and rooftops) would require a lot of time and effort to calculate and monitor each individual home. The City would need to increase staffing to administer this!  After careful analysis, we found that while larger homes have more hard surfaces the potential $7 difference in monthly charges between the largest and smallest single-family homes is minimal compared to the administrative costs of individual rates. Additionally, many larger single-family homes are in rural areas without direct connections to the stormwater system, making higher charges harder to justify. Therefore, to keep things both fair and simple, all single-family residential properties will share the same rate.

Multi-family residential properties typically have a smaller footprint than single-family detached homes, so they will be charged less. The rate for townhouses and duplexes will be half of the rate for a single-family detached home, while the rate for triplexes, fourplexes, fiveplexes, and sixplexes will be approximately one-third. These categories will be determined by Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) property assessments.