Proposed stormwater fee draws concerns from Allegheny Township residents, business owners

Allegheny Township’s plan to fund compliance with the state-mandated stormwater management program motivated around 50 residents and business representatives to attend Monday’s supervisors meeting, mostly in opposition.

The ordinance has been unpopular among a vocal faction since its introduction this year.

“We do our best to collect as much water as we can so we can utilize it on the golf course to keep our conditions as good as we can,” said Brian Dunaway of Willowbrook Country Club, expressing concern about the fairness of the fee for businesses.

The golf course, with two large parking lots, three buildings and about a mile of cart path, would be hit hard by the fee.

As originally proposed, most homeowners would pay $8 a month. For single-family homes on lots 5 acres or larger, the fee would scale with the amount of area that prevents water from seeping into the ground. Parking lots, roofs, swimming pools — basically anything that isn’t a lawn or wild area — all qualify as a so-called impervious area.

The same would be true for nonresidential parcels of any size.

An alternate version of the plan would bring that standard rate to $8.50 a month while eliminating the 5-acre distinction, bringing all homeowners to that flat rate. All other structures would still be proportionally assessed.

Credits of up to 50% would be available for farms, any property with well-kept stormwater mitigation measures in place and entities willing to educate people on the importance of managing runoff.

Still, that may not be enough to placate some business owners.

“I don’t understand why we have to be penalized on top of the $5,000, $10,000 we had to spend on a 100-year flood plan to put these (retention) ponds in,” said Robert Goldstrom, who owns a storage facility in the township.

Adam Mason, a self-described regenerative farmer, argued people in his line of work do more than just about anyone else to help the township manage stormwater. Rick Pounds of Pounds’ Turkey Farm made a similar point, noting on-site retention ponds, diversion ditches and buffer strips of vegetation.

“We’ve controlled every bit of water on our farm,” Pounds said.

The proposal comes as Allegheny Township runs short on time to make good on its MS4 plan, short for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System. Officials estimate they have well over $1 million worth of mitigation measures to get done before September 2026, when the state could start imposing consent orders or financial penalties for noncompliance.

Both versions of the fee structure would generate between $600,000 and $700,000.

“One thing you can’t do is comply with this regulation without any source of revenue to do it,” said Kevin Brett, an engineer with LSSE Civil Engineers and Surveyors.

Even with the fee, he expressed doubt the township could get fully compliant.

Allegheny Township is one of the “few stragglers” among LSSE’s 170 or so clients that has not met state requirements, engineer Shawn Wingrove noted.

A vote on the matter was not on the agenda.