Stormwater Tax Approved By Tredyffrin Supervisors

TREDYFFRIN, PA —Tredyffrin supervisors this week voted unanimously to include a stormwater fee in the 2024 real estate tax bill for residents.

The fee will amount to a mill in the tax bill going to repair drainage issues throughout the township.

Joseph F. DiRocco, assistant manager and director of finance, said the finance committee recommended a millage rate for stormwater revenue on the real estate tax bills.

DiRocco said the township was initially discussing a separate fee for stormwater management based on impervious land, which is land where flooding occurs, for each resident.

However, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has not yet ruled in a West Chester case if a separate fee based on impervious land is allowed by law.

Supervisor Mark Freed said the rain is not stopping.

“We need to move forward with something,” he said.

Freed said the millage structure is a traditional way of handling the need for stormwater funding.

Julie Gosse, board chairwoman, said the stormwater rate would be a separate item on the real estate bill.

She noted that if the separate stormwater fee is allowed by law, the township would be ready to change the method of billing.

Under the millage system, the fee is based on real estate, not the amount of impervious surface.

Resident Jacqueline Kunin, a longtime resident who resides on Richards Road, asked the supervisors to come up with another funding source.

She said prior township supervisors have allowed too much development, which has resulted in flooding.

“I am angry,” she said of the tax.

Kunin’s husband, Richard, Kunin, chairman of the Trout Creek Watershed, said he supports providing fees based on impervious surfaces.

“You have to make the people responsible pay for the problem,” he said.