Moratorium declared for some Boxelder fees

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

Some property owners who have disputed inclusion in the Boxelder Stormwater Authority fee area won't get a bill this year.

However, the question of whether to permanently change the fee area boundary remains undecided.

Discussions about the Boxelder Regional Stormwater Authority have been contentious over the past few months, with many property owners complaining about being included in the fee area. At a Feb. 11 meeting, the authority agreed to a moratorium on fees for properties upstream of regional reservoirs while the boundary issue is being resolved. They set Dec. 31 as the end date for the moratorium.

According to county engineer Mark Peterson, fees will be waived for properties upstream of the following reservoirs: Windsor Reservoir #8, #8 Annex, Elder, North Gray, South Gray, Clark and Indian. Larimer County's payment to the authority will be less because of the waived fees.

Larry Lorentzen, who represents Wellington on the authority board, clarified that the authority will not go back later and collect the waived fees.

A good deal of discussion at the February meeting centered around the authority's fee area boundary. In separate letters to the authority board, both the Larimer County Commissioners and authority manager Rex Burns recommended changes to the boundary.

The commissioners and Burns agreed that upstream reservoirs within the fee area provide considerable mitigation of stormwater flows, so properties that drain into these reservoirs should be removed from the fee area. Also, they said, properties north of County Road 70, which were not included in the original fee area, need to be looked at again.

However, the board refused to recommend boundary changes until the issue can be studied further.

The boundary issue prompted frustrated comments by several authority board members as well as the public.

"You need to decide, why are people paying?" said board member Richard Seaworth. Drawing new lines, he contended, would "create more problems, unless you have a good reason for changing the lines."

Seaworth and Wellington resident Bill Webster both said that the rationale for who is in and who is out of the fee area has not been consistent. Seaworth said the authority board must decide whether the criterion is based on hydrology – that is, the contribution of runoff water to the basin – or benefit to the property owner, or some combination of both.

"Everyone should be in for the same reason," he stated.

Lorentzen noted that the authority is legally required to have one legal nexus, or connection, that establishes a reason why people are in the fee area, and it must be consistently applied. He added that if there was a good reason for the original boundary, "I'm not sure why we want to change it."

"Whoever shouts the loudest is taken out," Lorentzen complained.

Board member Bob Smith, representing Fort Collins, asked Burns to come up with a schedule before the March meeting for studying a possible boundary change.

If the authority does decide to recommend boundary changes, Larimer County, Fort Collins and Wellington would need to approve an amendment to the intergovernmental agreement that created the authority.

In other authority business, Burns noted that the board is required to reassess its fee structure this year. He reported that fee revenues are higher than expected, and the project is expected to cost less due to the economic slowdown. These factors will affect decisions about the fee structure, he explained.