Denison weighs stormwater fee, but a $111,500 study comes first

Denison households could eventually see a storm drainage charge on their monthly city utility bill, though city staff told the City Council on Aug. 17 that any fee would follow a study rather than come before it. The proposed 2026-2027 budget sets aside $111,500 for that study, and the city has noticed a public hearing and vote on the budget for 6 p.m. Sept. 8 at Denison City Hall.

Staff brought the question to the council during the fiscal 2027 budget discussion, asking for direction on whether to move ahead with a drainage and stormwater fee study tied to a possible fee, according to the meeting agenda and the city's video of the meeting. The item followed a June 26 budget workshop and a July 13 update, with adoption scheduled for Sept. 8.

The purpose, as staff described it, is dedicated money to maintain Denison's drainage and flood-control systems. Staff said the study is needed to set charges in proportion to the runoff each property sends into the system, measured by impervious area, the roofs and paving that shed water instead of absorbing it. Asked what a bill might look like, staff used an illustration of about a dollar a month for a household, roughly $12 a year, while saying the study would calculate the actual options.

Staff also told the council that if a fee is adopted, the money collected would pay the capital improvement fund back for the cost of the study.

Denison identifies itself as a TPDES Phase II city that operates and maintains a municipal separate storm sewer system for residents and businesses. Storm water operations sit in the Utility Fund, and the proposed budget holds that spending at roughly $216,000, a little under this year's estimate and well above the roughly $143,000 the city actually spent in 2025.

A fee would require its own public process. Texas Local Government Code Section 552.045 requires a city to hold a public hearing before it levies drainage charges, and to publish the proposed schedule of charges in the notice for that hearing.

Other Texas cities have walked this road. Sherman's council discussed a fee study costing $112,500 in June 2016 and adopted a storm water utility by ordinance in September 2017, city records show; residential bills there now run from $1.20 to $3.60 a month by impervious-area tier. Bonham's proposed budget lists a drainage fee revenue line of about $117,500. San Marcos, whose utility dates to 1999, charges a typical home about $15 a month and calls the utility its main funding source for drainage work. Burleson says it is taking public input on its own proposed stormwater fee at meetings Sept. 8 and Sept. 14.

Denison's budget notice says the spending plan would raise about $405,000 less in total property-tax revenue than the prior year, a 2.6% decrease, with new property adding roughly $602,000.