The Clearwater City Council is moving forward with developing a storm water system in the Wellhead Protection Area along Co. Rd. 75.

 

The issue goes back to last October when a potential developer began discussions with the city about locating a business on part of the property behind Clearwater Travel Plaza.

 

In January, Engineer Joe Pelawa from Bolton & Menk said there was a major issue with any development on the land because of potential  contamination to the city’s water supply.

The proposed development would have expansive paved, impervious surfaces that generate large amounts of surface water runoff.

 

Pelawa said the city would have to find a way to handle groundwater on not only the developed parcel, but the entire stretch of land to accommodate future development.

 

Last month, the city approved a site plan for Blaine Brothers on the site. The company does truck repair, sales and service. As part of that plan, the company is being required to build the initial part of a future trunk storm water line that will eventually run along Co. Rd. 75, possibly in 2021.

 

“We’re having them do what we call the first leg of the storm line,” said Pelawa, “so they don’t do their site and then we come back in two years later and dig a big trench across their site.”

Last week, Pelawa said Blaine Brothers will be able to use an existing holding pond and then connect to the trunk line when the storm water line is built.

 

But he said the city had to decide how to finance the project, which has a preliminary price tag of $1.9 million.

 

He said the city could create a storm water district and assess the costs to the benefitting properties. The city could use its general fund to finance the project. Or they could try to get funding directly from the state by a request to the legislature.

 

Pelawa said his firm did some assessment calculations based on runoff from a 10-year rain event. In that scenario, for every cubic yard of runoff, a property would be assessed $1.55. But there were also other factors to consider, like the amount of impervious surface on each property.

 

“Some of these parcels are 98% impervious and some of the others are 70%,” he said. “We’re looking at the amount of storm water they would generate.”

 

Mayor Andrea Lawrence asked members of the council what their thoughts were for financing the project.

 

Councilman Wayne Kruchten said he was in favor of assessing the property owners - possibly at a 65% rate.

 

Councilman Vern Scott said he was also in favor of assessing, but wanted some dollar figures for each parcel before he would commit to a percentage.

 

“I want to know the numbers first,” he said. “I don’t want to run anybody out of business.”

 

Pelawa said he would come back with a spreadsheet showing each parcel and the amount of assessment based on a variety of percentages. That information could be available at the next meeting in May.