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Politics & Government

Downers Grove Church Leaders Fired Up about Stormwater Fee

Church leaders and parishioners argued that the stormwater utility fees for churches should be waived—many saying the cost cripples their budgets.

The Downers Grove Village Board heard from a long line of church leaders and parishioners at Tuesday night's village board meeting—all wanting to repeal the stormwater utility fee from their bills.

They argued that since churches in Downers Grove are not for profit institutions that provide valuable resources to the community, their stormwater utility fee should be waived completely.

In January 2013, the Village implemented a monthly stormwater fee, billed to all property owners in Downers Grove. The fee is based on the amount of impervious area within a parcel of land, defined by parking lots, roofs, driveways, patios, decks, swimming pools, and gravel areas.

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Arguments were made Tuesday night that the additional fee is crippling the budget of churches, many of whom provide food to Downers Grove's less fortunate residents. Several voices were heard during the public hearing of the 2014 budget, but the mayor and village council wanted to be clear that they will not budge on the fee.

“I'm going to be serious—we know there's only one direction the costs are going to go (with stormwater management) and that's up. We're going to commit to serious infrastructure, and we're going to commit to this steadfast and sometimes painful fee structure,” said Downers Grove Mayor Martin Tully. “In the past, we've taken the foot off the gas pedal because we drew static. We know what the cost is, and we're backing into it. This isn't rocket science.”

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Tully said he supports a reduction in cost of the fee in fiscal year 2014, but that the village can't do that every year.

“We'll never reach our maintenance and infrastructure goals that we've set forth,” he said. “We'd just be passing costs to future generations.”

According to the village, current revenues generated by the fee are allocated to the maintenance and operating costs of the stormwater infrastructure system, which consists of:

  • Approximately 7,000 drainage structures
  • 315 stormwater detention facilities
  • 130 miles of storm sewer pipes
  • 12 miles of streams
  • 140 miles of roadway ditches
  • 47,000 feet of culverts.
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