Stormwater Utility Fee Credit System

The Stormwater Utility (SWU) fees that fund the DeKalb County stormwater program are based on types of property and the amount of impervious surface on each property.  The fees collected from property owners are used by the County to mitigate the damaging effects of stormwater runoff from properties with impervious surface.   To the extent that property owners mitigate the degrading effects of stormwater runoff before discharging to the County system, the burden placed on the County system is somewhat lessened.  Therefore, the SWU fees for properties having certain stormwater management facilities are reduced through a credit system.

In establishing criteria for stormwater user fee credits, guidelines provided by DeKalb County development regulations and the Georgia Stormwater Management Manual (http://www.georgiastormwater.com/) were adopted.  Credits are offered in four categories, corresponding to the categories of management described in the Unified Stormwater Sizing Criteria of the Georgia Stormwater Management Manual:

    1. Water quality

    2. Channel protection

    3. Overbank flood protection

    4. Extreme flood protection

A ten (10) percent credit is given for each category listed above the applicant is approved for. The maximum credit is forty percent (40%).  Additional information about the SWU fee credit program can be found in the Stormwater Utility Credit Manual. (pdf)