The Stormwater Environmental Utility Service Assessment is an assessment levied to fund the customer service, planning (utility wide operations) and maintenance activities of the utility. The service assessment rates are approved by the Sarasota County Commission annually during the budget preparation and adoption process. Public hearings are held to obtain input for residents.

Customer service activities include the accounting, assessment, collections and database management functions. This assessment is a uniform amount for all parcels in the Stormwater utility area. (See FY 2012 Rate Structure Service Assessments table below)

Planning activities include basin master planning, engineering services, inspection programs, development plan review, system design and general management. This assessment, imposed on all parcels in the Stormwater Utility Area, is based on the ESUs of each parcel (.5 ESU minimum). (See FY 2012 Rate Structure Service Assessments table below)

Maintenance activities include routine ditch and canal clearing, ditch and canal mowing, removal of vegetation from drainage ways, herbicide application to control vegetation growth, cleaning, repair and replacement of storm sewers, and small scale construction projects. This assessment is based on the ESU’s of each parcel. (See FY 2012 Rate Structure Service Assessments table below)

The maintenance assessment is applied only within the utility maintenance area. The utility maintenance area includes the more urbanized areas within the county and the city of Sarasota. Although it includes some county maintained enclaves, the Myakka River basin is also considered a non-maintained basin. 

Service Management Map

FY 2012 Rate Structure Service Assessments

TOP

Capital Improvement Assessment
To fund capital improvement projects, as identified in the basin master plans, an assessment is levied on parcels in basins where capital projects are to be constructed. This capital improvement assessment is in addition to the service assessment described above. Capital improvement assessments collected in a particular basin are used exclusively to fund capital projects within that basin. Basin master plans analyze the need for capital improvements in relation to established levels of service – structure flooding, street flooding and water quality. Capital improvement assessments are calculated based on the project cost associated with a specified LOS and any related debt or financing cost and the total ESUs of the parcels within the improvement area. The capital assessment is levied according to the ESU count of a given parcel. Because the number and cost of projects varies in each basin, capital assessments vary between the basins. (See FY 2012 Rate Structure Capital Improvements Table)

Basin Maps

FY 2012 Rate Structure Capital Improvements

What is an ESU?
The Sarasota County Stormwater Environmental Utility assesses its customers on Equivalent Stormwater Units (ESUs) based on the effective impervious area of the average single-family parcel. Using statistically valid sampling of single family developed parcels, an “ESU Value” of 3,153 square feet was derived from a medium net impervious area and net pervious area of the sampled parcels. The ESU value is used to establish a basis for comparison of the relative runoff from the base ESU value and from all parcels within the stormwater utility area, including residential parcels, industrial/commercial parcels and condominiums.

ESU Value

TOP

How assessment bills are calculated - Assessment Methodology
All parcels are billed based on the estimated stormwater runoff generated by the parcel and passed to the county stormwater system. To simplify billing, several user classes have been created.

Property Classifications
The Sarasota County Stormwater Environmental Utility currently has seven major parcel classifications that it uses to assign property owners the appropriate number of ESUs. Each property in the stormwater service area is assigned to one of the following categories:

1. single family residential

2. single family vacant lot

3. mobile home parcel

4. duplex parcel

5. condominium residential

6. condominium nonresidential

7. general parcels

The single-family residential and vacant parcels are subdivided into small, medium, and large categories and given rate factors according to their size. The ESU calculations for each type of parcel are shown in the table below.

TOP

Single Family Residential – Tier approach based on lot size
Rate Structure – FY12 Residential Tiers

Drainage issue? Call 861-5000