By Mark Woolsey

Thursday night, the Cobb County Board of Commissioners passed a new stormwater fee that had been pulled from consideration last year after public outcry.

County officials recently proposed the plan after commissioners tabled the issue indefinitely in July 2024 due to strong public pushback.

The new structure imposes a flat fee of $4.75 monthly for a typical residential property. Non-residential customers will pay $4.75 for each 3,700 impervious square feet on their lots.

Impervious surfaces increasing the amount of runoff have been blamed for an increase in stormwater flooding problems in Cobb in recent years, as has increased development and climate change.

The plan also reduces higher water rates charged for the unincorporated county/Mableton, instead charging them at the lower in-city rates.

The money raised is designed to fund various infrastructure improvements, such as new positions and equipment for in-house repairs, additional money for contracted pipe repairs and funding to help the water system maintain detention ponds.

Some speakers who spoke during a public hearing ripped the plan.

East Cobb resident Lynn Marmalstein said county officials told them “There was nothing they could do” about repeated stormwater flooding on her property, under a subdivision plan she said the county had signed off on.

“It cost me 17 thousand dollars to put a dry bed in the back of my property  and now for you to come now and tell me I’ m going to pay a tax when nobody was there to help me, it aggravates me beyond what I can say right here.”

But commissioners  also heard from Matt Yarbrough of Marietta, who outlined how his 84-year-old grandmother dealt with stormwater from neighboring residences flooding her East Cobb property.

“She has incurred significant financial cost tied to putting in regular new infrastructure into her property to address that problem,” he commented.

Yarbrough called on commissioners to move ahead with the plan, saying that a number of other governmental units in the region already have a stormwater funding mechanism in place.

District 4 Commissioner Monique Sheffield voiced support for the proposal, saying “Some people want to hold the county accountable, this is holding the county accountable” and adding that the plan was a step in the right direction.

But District 3 Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, one of the 2 GOP commissioners  two Republicans voting against the measure, said “I won’t be in favor of any increase as long as we’re transferring money generated in water into the general fund.”

She said that had the county not followed that practice begun in the late 1990s, a lot  more money would be available to address funding and improvement issues.

The restructured billing arrangement is set to take effect June 1 of next year and the county says and that it, in effect, changes charging for stormwater management from a consumption model to one related to impervious surfaces.County officials proposed the plan recently after commissioners tabled the subject indefinitely in July of 2024 due to strong public pushback.

The new structure imposes a flat fee of $4.75 monthly for a typical residential property. Non-residential customers will pay $4.75 for each 3,700 impervious square feet on their lots.

Impervious surfaces increasing the amount of runoff have been blamed for an increase in stormwater flooding problems in Cobb in recent years, as has increased development and climate change.

The plan also reduces higher water rates charged for the unincorporated county/Mableton, instead charging them at the lower in-city rates.

The money raised is designed to fund various infrastructure improvements, such as new positions and equipment for in-house repairs, additional money for contracted pipe repairs and funding to help the water system maintain detention ponds.

Some speakers who spoke during a public hearing ripped the plan.

East Cobb resident Lynn Marmalstein  said county officials told them “There was nothing they could do” about repeated stormwater flooding on her property, under a subdivision plan she said the county had signed off on.

“It cost me 17 thousand dollars to put a dry bed in the back of my property  and now for you to come now and tell me I’ m going to pay a tax when nobody was there to help me, it aggravates me beyond what I can say right here.”

But commissioners  also heard from Matt Yarbrough of Marietta, who outlined how his 84-year-old grandmother dealt with stormwater from neighboring residences flooding her East Cobb property.

“She has incurred significant financial cost tied to putting in regular new infrastructure into her property to address that problem,” he commented.

Yarbrough called on commissioners to move ahead with the plan, saying that a number of other governmental units in the region already have a stormwater funding mechanism in place.

District 4 Commissioner Monique Sheffield voiced support for the proposal, saying, “Some people want to hold the county accountable; this is holding the county accountable,” and adding that the plan was a step in the right direction.

But District 3 Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, one of the two Republicans voting against the measure, said “I won’t be in favor of any increase as long as we’re transferring money generated in water into the general fund.”

She said that had the county not followed the practice begun in the late 1990s, a lot more money would be available to address funding and improvement issues.

The restructured billing arrangement is set to take effect June 1 of next year, and the county says that it, in effect, changes charging for stormwater management from a consumption model to one related to impervious surfaces.