The City of Kenosha is required by the State to comply with strict stormwater regulations. Stormwater Utility fees have been established to fund the maintenance and enforcement of these regulations. Significant measures have been taken to ensure that fair and equal distributions of these fees are applied to all City of Kenosha properties. Fees are billed on your Kenosha Water Utility bill.
The Stormwater Utility fee is comprised of two parts: the base charge and the variable charge. The base charge is identical for all properties within the City. The variable charge is assigned based on the amount of stormwater runoff generated by each property. This is determined using hydrologic calculations based on the property‘s square footage of pervious (porous) and impervious (non-porous) surfaces.
The basis of the variable rate of the Stormwater Utility fee is an Equivalent Hydraulic Unit (EHU). The EHU value represents the cost of the services necessary to manage the average runoff of stormwater from a property.
Residential EHUs
A residential property is defined as a single-family, two-family, three-family, or four-family dwelling. The EHU system that is utilized for residential properties organizes properties into four tiers. Each tier is defined as a range of stormwater runoff quantities. Quantity of runoff is computed using the lot size, and house and garage square footages, which are obtained directly from the City Assessor‘s office. There are four tier classifications: small, typical, large and very large, which a property will fit into based on the stormwater runoff quantity computed.
Other Development EHUs
Aerial photos and development plans are used to determine the square footage of structures, parking lots and interior walkways on properties other than those defined above as 'residential.' The pervious (porous) and impervious (non-porous) areas are then used to compute an EHU value for each property.
Any property owner may apply for an adjustment to the EHUs assigned to the owner‘s property if the property owner believes the measurements on which the EHU calculation is based are incorrect. Please refer to Section 8.07 of the Stormwater Utility Ordinance for information on the applicability of rate adjustment.
Property owners may apply for a credit to their stormwater utility charge if they meet established criteria regarding the alternative stormwater service of their property. Please refer to Section 8.08 of the Stormwater Utility Ordinance for information on the applicability of Stormwater credit.
Property owners have the opportunity to appeal decisions made by the Director of Public Works to the Stormwater Utility Committee. Please refer to Section 8.09 of the Stormwater Utility Ordinance for more information on the applicability of an appeal.