BERLIN—In a letter to inform other town businesses, Michael A. Franklin, president and CEO of Atlantic General Hospital, told members of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce that the hospital’s Board of Trustees had filed a declaratory judgment complaint to seek an exemption from the Town of Berlin’s new stormwater management tax.
Franklin noted that AGH was not contiguous to the town center and had already substantially renovated its 24-acre campus on Healthway Drive to mitigate the potential for stormwater flooding in 2002 and 2011.
“In each instance, AGH has obtained all stormwater management approvals, and has constructed stormwater management facilities on site in accordance with the approved plans and specifications,” Franklin noted in the letter.
The trustees complained that despite the renovations that had been made to the property the hospital received no exemption credits for its environmental site design.
Neither Franklin nor Berlin Mayor Gee Williams wished to comment yet about the declaratory judgment complaint.
“We maintain that in-fill and redevelopment inside of an Existing Developed Area, such as AGH, should be promoted and incentivized to make these systems more attractive,” he continued in the letter. Franklin added that the ordinance instead seemed to discourage practices that similar state legislation seemed to favor.
Moreover, “According to the Ordinance, we will have the highest annual stormwater utility fee in the Town of Berlin, with the exception of those properties owned and operated by the Worcester County Board of Education,” Franklin wrote. He also made the point that as a not-for-profit organization, AGH was obligated to invest its resources into providing quality healthcare and expanding services for the citizens of the Town of Berlin and other neighboring communities.
The Town Council unanimously approved the ordinance and resolution that began the process of establishing a stormwater utility department in January 2013 (Ordinance 2013-01). It authorized town officials to fund the utility by imposing a flat $50 annual fee for residential property owners and a $25 annual fee based on the impervious square footage of a commercial property.
The $25 fee for nonresidential properties was based on a formula that calculated a property’s landmass in equivalent residential units (ERU). The fees would apply to each ERU increment, which would equate to an area of impervious cover within a 2,100-square-foot space.
“We firmly maintain that it is not fair and equitable, as required by the purpose of the proposed statute, to require AGH to pay an excessive annual fee, when we have already been required to design, permit and construct a stormwater management facility on our campus, which complies with all regulations,” the Franklin letter maintained.
Asked about the litigation, Berlin Councilmember Troy Purnell said on Jan. 14 he had not yet seen the complaint. But he added that during the discussions that led up to the implementation of the stormwater management utility the mayor and council struggled to try to find a practical way to differentiate between assessments for landowners who had stormwater mitigation systems designed for their property and those who did not.
“We just couldn’t figure out a fair way to do it other than the way we did,” he said.
Purnell, who is a local developer himself, pointed out that even the most substantial stormwater control system can only mitigate flooding to a certain point. During weather events with severe rainfall, he said, water will ultimately leave the property site “and that is when you would have a problem.”
Purnell added that the council has not closed the door to modifying the stormwater assessment at some point in the future.
Franklin noted that AGH was not contiguous to the town center and had already substantially renovated its 24-acre campus on Healthway Drive to mitigate the potential for stormwater flooding in 2002 and 2011.
“In each instance, AGH has obtained all stormwater management approvals, and has constructed stormwater management facilities on site in accordance with the approved plans and specifications,” Franklin noted in the letter.
The trustees complained that despite the renovations that had been made to the property the hospital received no exemption credits for its environmental site design.
Neither Franklin nor Berlin Mayor Gee Williams wished to comment yet about the declaratory judgment complaint.
“We maintain that in-fill and redevelopment inside of an Existing Developed Area, such as AGH, should be promoted and incentivized to make these systems more attractive,” he continued in the letter. Franklin added that the ordinance instead seemed to discourage practices that similar state legislation seemed to favor.
Moreover, “According to the Ordinance, we will have the highest annual stormwater utility fee in the Town of Berlin, with the exception of those properties owned and operated by the Worcester County Board of Education,” Franklin wrote. He also made the point that as a not-for-profit organization, AGH was obligated to invest its resources into providing quality healthcare and expanding services for the citizens of the Town of Berlin and other neighboring communities.
The Town Council unanimously approved the ordinance and resolution that began the process of establishing a stormwater utility department in January 2013 (Ordinance 2013-01). It authorized town officials to fund the utility by imposing a flat $50 annual fee for residential property owners and a $25 annual fee based on the impervious square footage of a commercial property.
The $25 fee for nonresidential properties was based on a formula that calculated a property’s landmass in equivalent residential units (ERU). The fees would apply to each ERU increment, which would equate to an area of impervious cover within a 2,100-square-foot space.
“We firmly maintain that it is not fair and equitable, as required by the purpose of the proposed statute, to require AGH to pay an excessive annual fee, when we have already been required to design, permit and construct a stormwater management facility on our campus, which complies with all regulations,” the Franklin letter maintained.
Asked about the litigation, Berlin Councilmember Troy Purnell said on Jan. 14 he had not yet seen the complaint. But he added that during the discussions that led up to the implementation of the stormwater management utility the mayor and council struggled to try to find a practical way to differentiate between assessments for landowners who had stormwater mitigation systems designed for their property and those who did not.
“We just couldn’t figure out a fair way to do it other than the way we did,” he said.
Purnell, who is a local developer himself, pointed out that even the most substantial stormwater control system can only mitigate flooding to a certain point. During weather events with severe rainfall, he said, water will ultimately leave the property site “and that is when you would have a problem.”
Purnell added that the council has not closed the door to modifying the stormwater assessment at some point in the future.