Staff member called a Philomath City Council work session back to order to finish discussion of the citys utility rates study and said the final item for tonight was the storm-drainage piece.

Council members gave informal consensus to direct staff to develop a proposed storm-drainage charge calculated by impervious surface area (square footage) and to build an example utility-rates framework that includes fixed-charge revenue recovery, adjusted charges for multi-residential properties, an elevation surcharge, volumetric rates, and storm-drain impervious-surface service charges, according to staff remarks during the session.

The impervious-area approach described by staff would calculate a propertys storm-drainage charge by the amount of hard surface (square footage) that prevents water from soaking into the ground. Staff noted the citys current rates are "substantially under industry" norms and said switching to an impervious-area basis would align Philomaths fees more closely with typical practice.

In response to a question about impacts on new development, staff acknowledged the approach could cause some properties to pay more than others depending on their impervious area and said that concern will be considered as staff builds the example framework.

When the facilitator asked, "Anyone opposed to moving forward with that?" there was no objection; the group accepted the direction and asked staff to return at the next meeting with numbers to plug into the framework.

The work session was then adjourned and the council moved into regular session at 7:10 p.m., according to staff remarks.