The City of Hendersonville wanted to pursue a Stormwater Enterprise Fund Rate Study project. The objective was to re-evaluate its existing stormwater rate structure and establish a revised structure. The structure addresses the City’s short- and long-term operations, maintenance, and capital needs.
Like many local governments, Hendersonville was faced with the challenge of paying for increased costs to comply with state and federal stormwater quality mandates. The City also has to face ongoing maintenance of and improvement to its existing drainage system.
While the existing stormwater rate structure has been generating some revenue, it was not adequate to meet the City’s drainage and regulated stormwater program requirements. It also did not reflect the demands that stormwater runoff places on repairing/replacing public infrastructure. The City had also sought to update its stormwater fee schedule to more adequately address its comprehensive needs.
Stormwater Analysis
WithersRavenel helped with the draft budget development by helping define current levels of stormwater-related services provided by the City in in terms of operating staff, equipment allocations, maintenance costs, capital outlay, and other operational and maintenance expenditures. We also helped identify operational and maintenance issues and needs that were not being addressed in the existing stormwater program. Additionally, our team helped determine the appropriate level of stormwater services that was consistent with identified City Council objectives, which reflected the community’s input and considers policy parameters.
Financial Analysis
For the financial analysis, WithersRavenel established key financial objectives and assumptions, which helped guide the development of the Financial Analysis Model. The team created yearly estimates of new revenue needed to support the stormwater program for the next 10 years. They also calculated how this would affect different types of customers at various fee levels.
The stormwater rate model helps the City predict fund revenues. It uses proposed user rate assumptions; these assumptions can be adjusted to match the projected revenue needs from the financial analysis.
The final deliverables included:
- A draft memorandum of findings and conclusions
- A Capital Improvement Plan (CIP)
- A financial model
- A rate model
- A revised (draft) stormwater ordinance.