Wendy Parker

Despite pleas from citizens—including some East Cobb residents affected by devastating floods four years ago—the Cobb Board of Commissioners Thursday approved the creation of a stormwater utility fee.

Near the end of a meeting that stretched for five hours, commissioners voted 3-2 to charge residential customers a flat $4.75 a month for stormwater services, with commercial and institutional users to be charged $4.75 based on each 3,700 square feet of impervious surface on their properties.

Commissioners approved the measure after it was pulled last year, following heated community opposition.

Many citizens who spoke during a public hearing earlier Thursday wanted them to delay a vote to create a master plan for stormwater management, among other things.

Some argued that another tax won’t solve the issues many of them have with stormwater, and that there are enough revenues to address the problems.

East Cobb resident Hill Wright, who’s been long critical of what he calls a rain tax, told District 2 Commissioner Erick Allen during the public hearing that if he supported the fee, it should be called “the Erick Allen Rain Tax.”

But Allen said shortly before the vote—which took place close to 11 p.m.—that “the position of do-nothing doesn’t solve the problem.

“This creates a mechanism to start helping our neighbors that are having these issues.”

Allen was among the three Democrats who voted in favor of the fee, with the two Republican commissioners opposed.

Currently Cobb stormwater customers currently are charged through their water and sewer bills based on the amount of impervious surfaces on their properties. The fee would apply to customers in unincorporated Cobb and the City of Mableton, whose stormwater management is handled by the county.

Republican Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of District 3 in East Cobb said while the proposal would create a dedicated enterprise fund, she’s opposed to a stormwater fee while the county continues to transfer portions of its water revenues—currently four percent—to the county’s general fund.

“I know it’s legal but if we had not done that we’d have a lot more money to be addressing this now,” she said.

“I can’t justify any more revenue. I just can’t.”

Members of the audience applauded, but earlier, during the public hearing, they made pleas to table the fee proposal that were eventually ignored.

Among the concerns expressed were that the county has never created a complete inventory of its stormwater infrastructure, nor developed a master plan for managing it.

Under the proposal homeowners associations also would be charged the institutional fee for impervious surfaces. That prompted Richard Grome of the East Cobb Civic Association to ask to table the measure.

East Cobb resident Rebecca Smith, whose backyard and home were flooded in the 2021 storms due to a collapsed stormwater pipe, said she and her neighbors had to spend $96,000 for repairs because the county didn’t have it included on a surveyor’s plat.

They’re having to spring for an additional $20,000 to repair the new pipe, which hasn’t worked properly. Flood insurance covers none of those expenses, she said.

“Why does Cobb County think it’s okay to make homeowners responsible for those repairs?” Smith said, her voice cracking with emotion.

“How do you think anyone would want to continue to live in this county if they are forced to take ownership of these repairs? Why would anyone want to move here? Instead of doing what’s right, you’re choosing to do what’s politically expedient.”

Her husband, Orion Smith, followed her, and said as soon as they fix the stormwater pipe, they’re putting their house up for sale and “leaving Cobb County forever.”

He said he’s not opposed to paying taxes for government services and is a “life-long Democrat,” but “well-run is the key component.”

The real problem, he added, is that Cobb County has “woefully incomplete records of it stormwater inventory and refuses to even reconsider to make any repairs to any infrastructure not found in its spotty records.”

Like other speakers and Birrell, he pointed out the stormwater revenues that were transferred to the general fund along with water revenues over the years.

In the current Cobb fiscal year 2026 budget, that transfer amount is $11 million, but only $300,000 comes from stormwater revenue.

Cobb is spending more than $9 million in FY 2026 for stormwater services; the proposed stormwater fee would generate around $17 million a year.

East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher, a Republican member of the Cobb Board of Elections, also spoke against the fee, although she once favored such a thing.

She lives in the Loch Highland neighborhood, which has two private lakes that she and other residents have had to pay to dredge, due to stormwater runoff from the Sweat Mountain area.

Fisher said, however, that in the two years since a stormwater fee was first proposed, “we still don’t have a plan. We still don’t have the number of miles of piping, of sewer pipes, of water pipes. You don’t even know what kind of money you need.

“This is not ready for prime time.”

The fee is slated to go into effect on June 1, 2026.