Opinion ID: 2293001
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Direct Relationship Between the Fee and the Benefit Conferred

Text: [¶ 17] The facts relevant to the relationship between the assessment and the benefit conferred are also not in dispute. Gladu does not dispute that stormwater runoff contributes to water pollution, nor does he dispute that the Utility provides benefits to the public by regulating stormwater runoff. Gladu's argument is that he does not receive an individual benefit that is not conferred to the public at large in exchange for paying the stormwater assessment. [¶ 18] Gladu also argues that the assessment is not related to the Utility's purpose of providing better water quality because the assessment is calculated by area of impervious surface, which relates to the quantity, not the quality, of stormwater runoff. Contradicting Gladu's unsupported factual assertion, the City provided evidence that basing assessments on amount of impervious surface is a widely accepted and recommended method of calculating fees, and that the quantity of stormwater runoff is directly related to water quality. Therefore, there is no genuine issue of material fact as it relates to whether there is a direct relationship between the assessment of the fee and the benefit conferred. [¶ 19] Our analysis now turns to whether the benefit of managing Gladu's stormwater and improving water quality throughout the City is enough of an individualized benefit to Gladu to warrant upholding the assessment as a fee. Courts in other jurisdictions have differed in their approach to this factor, but in cases involving ordinances most similar to Lewiston's this factor has weighed in favor of a determination that the assessment is a fee. In McLeod, the Georgia Supreme Court acknowledged a trend . . . in favor of upholding fees that confer intangible benefits on both those who are assessed and those who are not. 599 S.E.2d at 155 (quotation marks omitted). The court agreed with the Supreme Court of Florida that there was a direct relationship between the fee paid and the benefit conferred if the fee applies to residential and non-residential developed property, but not to undeveloped property, which actually contributes to the absorption of stormwater runoff; the properties charged receive a special benefit from the funded stormwater services, which are designed to implement federal and state policies through the control and treatment of polluted stormwater contributed by those properties; and, the cost of those services was properly apportioned based primarily on horizontal impervious surface area. Id. (citing Sarasota Cnty. v. Sarasota Church of Christ, Inc., 667 So.2d 180, 184-87 (Fla.1995) (upholding a fee utilizing factors nearly identical to those in McLeod )). [4] [¶ 20] The City's Ordinance passes this test. The assessment applies only to developed property, the properties receive the special benefit of having their stormwater managed in an effort to comply with state and federal laws, and the assessment is properly based on horizontal impervious surface area. Viewing this factor in light of the recent trend toward upholding fees that confer intangible benefits on both those who are assessed and those who are not, McLeod, 599 S.E.2d at 155 (quotation marks omitted), it weighs in favor of upholding the stormwater fee.