The Crown Point City Council amended an ordinance that will mean an increase in stormwater fees charged to many city businesses.
The revised ordinance, approved unanimously by the council, will only affect the city’s commercial properties and not residential properties.
Crown Point Mayor Pete Land said at the meeting on Monday, “This does not affect the single-family and multi-family stormwater rates.”
The monthly stormwater utility user fee for all single-family residential properties within the city will remain at $6, while the multi-family rate will remain at $12, Land said.
Also unchanged, under the revised rates, is the $12 monthly user fee paid for all unimproved property.
Commercial properties, previously charged a flat $12 monthly rate, will now pay a monthly user fee calculated on the properties’ individually measured area divided by one equivalent residential unit or ERU, which the business occupies.
The ordinance defines an ‘ERU’ as a 0.31-acre area, a figure meant to represent the average size of a Crown Point residential lot.
The minimum rate calculated under this revision is $12, while the maximum monthly stormwater user fee shall be $125. The maximum monthly stormwater user fee will increase to $250 on Jan. 1, 2027, according to the amended ordinance.
City officials earlier this year approved a multi-phase water and sewer rate increase, driven in part by an increase in the wholesale water rates charged to the city by Indiana American Water, Land said at that time.
The proposed hikes were to be billed into three phases: Phase 1: upon adoption of the ordinance this past March; Phase 2: Aug. 1, 2025; and Phase 3: Aug. 1, 2026.
The council in March also approved increases for city sewer rates.
The sewer rate per 1,000 gallons went from $11.07 to $16.71, creating an increase of $5.64 in Phase 1.
As part of Phase 2, this change will be reflected on the bill of customers beginning March 2026 for January’s usage.
