Norman Residents Vote Down Stormwater Utility Fee

During Tuesday's elections, Norman residents were given the opportunity to vote on a stormwater plan for the City.

It was something Norman Mayor Lynne Miller said is a priority.

“It is the single most important issue in the City,” she said.

But one that was voted down by an overwhelming majority of voters.

Resident Jackson Rushing was one of the roughly 30 percent of voters who voted for the stormwater plan and he agrees with most of the idea.

“I thought what they wanted to do was perfectly appropriate," he said. "The issue was the funding, whether it was going to be equitably and fairly distributed.”

It's an area the mayor identified as an issue before polls even opened.

According to the proposed fee schedule, residents would be charged monthly based on the square footage of hard or paved surfaces on their property.

Now, Miller said if the issue is going back on the ballot, some things will need to change.

“The same thing will not go back, what we heard from the people is that they did not like the rate structure that was put before them,” Miller said.

Besides Moore, Norman is the only city of its size in the state that does not already have a stormwater fee plan in place.

Rushing said it's a change that's overdue and one that will quickly affect the quality of the City's drinking water in Lake Thunderbird.

It’s not rocket science, Rushing said. 

“If you don’t take care of your source of water there’s gonna be problems,” he said.

The City is exploring alternative fee schedule options.