by SC Reporter Emilie Alfino
The Sanibel City Council approved a stormwater management master plan on Oct. 7. It consists of eight projects for Dixie Beach Boulevard, Bailey Road, and Tarpon Bay Road, totaling $29,240,000.
The associated Capital Improvement Plan comprises 15 projects totaling $62,161,000.The recommendations in both plans will obviously require significant financial resources.
According to Steve Chaipel, Deputy City Manager and CFO, a standard funding tool for Florida local governments to fund stormwater expenses is the adoption of a stormwater assessment fee. Governments that have these fees in place use stormwater assessments as a predictable, dedicated way to fund drainage projects, manage stormwater runoff, and long-term infrastructure improvements and maintenance.
“These charges are not ad valorem property taxes based on property values. Instead, these fees are tied to the benefit a property receives from the stormwater system,” Chaipel wrote in his memo to Council.
“These fees are commonly imposed on an annual basis and collected by the county tax collector as residents and businesses remit their tax payments,” he said.
Other Southwest Florida governments are funding their stormwater projects in a variety of ways:
City of Fort Myers: The fee is based on total impervious area per parcel. The cost to an average single-family home is about $155 per year.
City of Cape Coral: Both vacant and improved properties are billed. The stormwater fee is based on the property’s square footage. The average single-family cost is $164 per year.
Town of Fort Myers Beach: Establishes a monthly Equivalent Residential Unit-based stormwater utility fee annually by resolution. The average single-family home costs $38 per month, or $452 per year.
City of Naples: The fee is calculated using a utility-based approach rather than an annual assessment. Fees are included in the monthly utility billing. Naples divides the city into several stormwater assessment basins to better align user charges with operational expenses. The average single-family home cost is $48.50 every two months, or $291 annually.
Sanibel has to pass a resolution on the fees by the end of this year.
Mayor Mike Miller said, “This is a good idea. I think we should proceed. This is equivalent to a tax. The difference is that the potential benefit here is that we can levy this burden on a different basis.”
For example, perhaps use “impermeable area” to determine the assessment amount.
“Everyone should have to share in the assessment to protect the entire island,” said Council member John Henshaw.
“That’s down the road for us to consider,” said Vice Mayor Holly Smith. “We’re the only municipality that doesn’t have [a stormwater assessment fee] in our region.”
Council made a motion for city staff to provide a resolution to them before Jan. 1, 2026, establishing the city’s intent to develop an assessment. It passed unanimously.
Council member Richard Johnson reminded everyone that this is just part of the solution, not the entire financial solution.
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