CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH STORMWATER UTILITY NON-AD VALOREM ASSESSMENT
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
The City of St. Augustine Beach is implementing an annual stormwater assessment. When imposed, the assessment will appear under the non-ad valorem section on the tax bill that you will receive in November.
The City Commission of the City of St. Augustine Beach held a public hearing on August 5, 2024. At this public hearing, comments were received on the proposed stormwater utility assessments, including their collection on the ad valorem tax bill (rewatch it here).
The information in this Frequently Asked Questions has been prepared to answer some of the questions you may have regarding the City’s stormwater utility assessment program.
We hope the following helps to increase awareness of the importance of addressing our flooding problems, repairing our infrastructure, and protecting our ocean and the Matanzas River from stormwater pollution. For more information, please contact the City of St. Augustine Beach at stormwater [at] cityofsab.org (stormwater[at]cityofsab[dot]org).
A stormwater utility assessment is a user fee for stormwater services. It is like the fee for water, wastewater, cable, natural gas or electric service at your home or business.
Stormwater runoff is the water that flows off roofs, parking lots, and other hard, non-absorbent surfaces during rainstorms. In addition to being absorbed into the ground, runoff flows into ditches, culverts, drainage pipes and directly into our ocean and the Matanzas River.
The City provides services to reduce flooding and improve water quality, to operate and maintain existing stormwater facilities (such as ponds, ditches and culvert pipes) and to monitor and restore the health of our water resources. We also provide outreach efforts to help educate the public about stormwater.
The stormwater utility assessment will enable the City to better manage the City’s stormwater system, improve the condition of our infrastructure, and monitor the impacts of stormwater on the natural environment.
The use of special assessments requires the City to meet the Florida case law requirements for a valid special assessment including fair and reasonable apportionment. This means that unlike taxes, which can be used for any general purpose, the revenues collected through the stormwater special assessment can only be used to fund stormwater management services like stormwater program engineering and ongoing maintenance of City-owned stormwater drainage infrastructure.
A property’s value does not affect rainstorm runoff, so property taxes are not the most accurate way to pay for stormwater services. For example, an oceanfront residence and a small shopping center may have similar appraised values and pay similar property taxes. However, the shopping center produces much more runoff because of the amount of parking and rooftops.
Yes. Approximately 185 Florida local governments have a stormwater assessment.
Yes. The City of St. Augustine Beach Stormwater Assessment covers stormwater management services within all of the incorporated City of St. Augustine Beach. This includes maintenance of City stormwater infrastructure which receives flow from stormwater ditches and drainage pipes and runoff from adjacent parcels and roadways.
It is the area on a property which is covered by a hard surface that does not absorb water and impedes the natural flow of water into the soil. In general, impervious surfaces include non-absorbent surfaces such as roofed structures, driveways, parking lots, decks and other hard surfaces that impedes rainstorm runoff from absorbing into the soil.
An ERU is a billing unit for the amount of stormwater runoff from the impervious area of the median or “midpoint-size” residential parcel. It is a measure that serves to compare runoff generated by different sizes and types of residential properties with various stormwater runoff generation characteristics. The midpoint was calculated by measuring impervious area on a statistically significant random sample set of City parcel data obtained from the St. Johns County Property Appraiser official records. In the City of St. Augustine Beach, an ERU represents 3,800 square feet of impervious surface that is found on the property.
Single Family Residential (SFR) parcels include duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes. Single Family Attached (SFA) properties include townhomes and other single-family residential properties that share a common space/common area.
The City determined the base ERU is 3,800 square feet. A three-tier billing structure was developed to determine the cost assessed to each SFR and SFA parcel using the Property Appraiser records. SFR and SFA properties are placed into one of three tiers, based upon their calculated impervious area (including shared common area for single-family attached properties), as shown in the table below. These tier breakpoints were selected based upon the range of impervious area totals for this customer class, with the largest group (approximately 70%) falling into Tier 2, and with the remainder being placed into Tiers 1 and 3 (approximately 15% each). The City Commission approved annual rate ($200.00 for Fiscal Year 2025) is then multiplied by the ERU rate value of that tier to calculate the annual fee.
*One ERU billing unit = Annual Rate ($200.00 for Fiscal Year 2025) = 3,800 square feet = Tier 2 ERU Rate.
All developed parcels (parcels with impervious areas greater than or equal to 400 square feet) that are not single family residential or condominium (i.e. commercial, industrial, institutional, etc.) will be charged based on the impervious area associated with their property. The calculation will consider the total amount of impervious surfaces (building footprint, parking lot, sidewalks and other paved surfaces) divided by the billing unit value of 3,800, then rounded up to the nearest whole integer as in the example shown below. The property's ERU is then multiplied by the annual rate per ERU for the total annual fee.
***Please note that the current ERU rate was voted by the City Commission at $200.00 for Fiscal Year 2025.
All condominium parcels will be charged based on a portion of the total impervious area including shared common area impervious area such walkways, parking lots and recreational facilities for the entire condominium complex.
The total impervious area is then divided by 3,800 square feet to determine the total ERUs attributable to the complex. The condominium complex ERU value is then divided by the number of residential condominium units and multiplied by the annual ERU rate ($200.00 current 2025 rate) to determine the charge attributable to each residential unit in the condominium complex.
See the images in each collapsible section below to assist in estimating your impervious area.
***Please note that the current ERU rate was voted by the City Commission at $200.00 for Fiscal Year 2025.
The City is using the tax bill to collect the stormwater utility assessment because it saves on billing, balances equity, fairness and administrative complexity.
All property owners within the City of St. Augustine Beach that have impervious surfaces must pay regardless of ownership or tax status because they generate runoff that the City has to manage.
City of St. Augustine Beach Residents/Parcel Owners will receive a “NOTICE TO PROPERTY OWNER” via regular mail, similar to the example letter below. Please note the yellow highlighted box/table will indicate the parcel’s non-ad valorem assessment.
See our Stormwater Utility Implementation page for the 2024 schedule.
Please contact the City’s Engineering Department at stormwater [at] cityofsab.org (stormwater[at]cityofsab[dot]org) for additional information.
See the below Mitigation Policy Manual on parcel fee adjustments and mitigation fee credits.