Revived Cobb stormwater fee proposal to be unveiled Tuesday

A year and a half since dropping a proposed stormwater fee, Cobb commissioners on Tuesday will be formally presented with a revised plan to impose a dedicated charge for all customers.

Currently customers are charged through their water and sewer bills based on the amount of impervious surfaces on their properties.

The major change from the original proposal—which was tabled after heated opposition from citizens—includes a flat $4.75 per month for residential customers.

Commercial and institutional customers would also be billed $4.75 month per 3,700 square feet of impervious surface.

The fee would apply to customers in unincorporated Cobb and the City of Mableton, whose stormwater management is handled by the county. Five of Cobb’s six other cities charge their own stormwater fees; Marietta does not.

(You can read the agenda item for a Tuesday work session by clicking here. The work session, which includes other proposed code amendments for possible action next month, begins at 1:30 p.m. and will be livestreamed on the county’s YouTube channel.)

The Cobb water system also has prepared a stormwater credit manual to further break down how it’s intending to charge for stormwater management

The initial stormwater fee plan, first presented in late 2023, would have imposed a charge for residential customers ranging between $2 and $12 a month, based on the amount of impervious surfaces on their properties.

Cobb water officials have been asking for a separate stormwater fee for years, saying they can’t manage an aging, overextended stormwater system, which has been budgeted $9.5 million in the current Cobb fiscal year 2026 budget.

The request was accelerated by severe floods in the fall of 2021 that badly damaged many homes and yards in East Cobb.

But when the county introduced a fee proposal, citizens protested en masse, at public comment sessions and other events, including a fiery town hall meeting in East Cobb.

They blasted the proposal as a “rain tax,” and said it wouldn’t help those affected by the flood damage.

At that town hall, Cobb Water System director Judy Jones said that “the way we’re charging now, residential customers are paying more than commercial customers. I’m trying to fix that. But I have to have more money to do that. The way we do it now is not equitable.”

Cobb’s two Republican commissioners, JoAnn Birrell of East Cobb and Keli Gambrill of West Cobb, opposed that fee.

Former Commissioner Jerica Richardson of East Cobb, whose constituents were affected by the 2021 floods, called for the initial motion to table the proposal in March of 2024, saying that stakeholders sessions should be conducted to go over what she called “a big issue . . . but it’s complex.”

Commissioners will hold public hearings on the proposed stormwater fee in November.

The work session on Tuesday will not include public comments, but there is a public comment session scheduled for the Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday night.

That meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the second floor board room of the county office building at 100 Cherokee Street, Marietta. You can view the full agenda by clicking here.

You also can watch the hearing on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.