New Fee In Western Springs Likely This Year

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL – A new stormwater fee could be in place by the middle of the year in Western Springs, an official says.

At Monday's Village Board meeting, Deputy Village Manager Casey Biernacki said trustees are expected to vote on the fee in February.

He said the village has had a lot of conversations with residents about the fee since the village released the fee schedule in the village's recent Tower Topics newsletter.

"They've all been very good," he said.

Later this week, Biernacki said he expected the village to post online an interactive map. This would be where residents could look at their addresses and see what their fees would be, he said.

The fee is expected to be based on the amount of impervious surfaces such as pavement on a property. Such surfaces are often blamed for flooding.

With the map, Biernacki said, residents can report any mistakes in the calculations.

Under the village's current proposal, the fee would have three tiers. The annual costs under the tiers would be $147, $210 and $294.

According to the village, about 60 percent of households would pay the middle tier – $210 a year.

The stormwater fee would pay for improvements to prevent flooding.

Officials say a fee would, among other things, help pay for flood control in the Springdale and Ridgewood neighborhoods, where projects are expected to be in the millions.

In the newsletter, the village says the fee would provide consistent, long-term income for stormwater projects. The village said it would be able to issue $9.5 million in bonds.

The fee would also apply to nonresidential property as well.

Last summer, Western Springs trustees decided to pay a consultant up to $77,000 to develop a plan for the fee.

In November, a slight majority of Western Springs voters rejected a proposed increase in the village's sales tax by 1 percentage point. The tax would have paid for infrastructure projects in general, including for stormwater.