§ 86.502. Definitions.

In this article:

Benefitted property or property means a lot or tract of real property to which drainage service is made available under this article and which is located within the service area.

Board means the drainage advisory board established in section 2.191 of this Code.

Cost of service as applied to drainage system service to any benefitted property, means:

(1)

The prorated cost of the acquisition, whether by eminent domain or otherwise, of land, rights-of-way, options to purchase land, easements, and interests in land relating to structures, equipment, and facilities used in drainage the benefitted property;

(2)

The prorated cost of the acquisition, construction, repair, and maintenance of structures, equipment, and facilities used in draining the benefitted property;

(3)

The prorated cost of architectural, engineering, legal, and related services, plans and specifications, studies, surveys, estimates of cost and of revenue, and all other expenses necessary or incident to planning, providing, or determining the feasibility and practicability of structures, equipment, and facilities used in draining the benefitted property;

(4)

The prorated cost of all machinery, equipment, furniture, and facilities necessary or incident to the provision and operation of draining the benefitted property;

(5)

The prorated cost of funding and financing charges and interest arising from construction projects and the start-up cost of a drainage facility used in draining the benefitted property;

(6)

The prorated cost of debt service and reserve requirements of structures, equipment, and facilities provided by revenue bonds or other drainage revenue-pledge securities or obligations issued by the city; and

(7)

The prorated administrative costs of a drainage utility system.

Director means the executive director of the department of public services, the director of engineering or their designees.

Drainage means bridges, catch basins, channels, conduits, creeks, culverts, detention ponds, ditches, draws, flumes, pipes, pumps, sloughs, treatment works, and appurtenances to those items, whether natural or artificial, or using force or gravity, that are used to draw off surface water from land, carry the water away, collect, store, or treat the water, or divert the water into natural or artificial watercourses.

Drainage charge means:

(1)

The levy imposed to recover the cost of service to the city in furnishing drainage for any benefitted property; and

(2)

If specifically provided by ordinance, an amount made in contribution to funding of future drainage system construction by the city.

Drainage system means the drainage owned or controlled in whole or in part by the city, including the portions of the Blanco River and San Marcos River within the service area, and dedicated to the service of benefitted property, including provisions for additions to the system. The drainage system is also known as a municipal separate storm sewer system, or MS4, meaning that the storm sewers are a separate system not connected with the sanitary sewer system.

Equivalent residential unit (ERU) means the basic billing unit for the drainage charge.

Facilities means the property, either real, personal, or mixed, that is used in providing drainage and included in the drainage system.

Impervious cover means roads, streets, parking areas, buildings, sidewalks and other construction covering the natural land surface that is impenetrable to stormwater.

Improved lot or tract means a lot or tract that has a structure or other improvement on it that causes an impervious coverage of the soil under the structure or improvement.

Public utility means a drainage service that is regularly provided by the city through municipal property dedicated to that service to the users of benefitted property within the service area and that is based on:

(1)

An established schedule of charges;

(2)

The use of the police power to implement the service; and

(3)

Nondiscriminatory, reasonable, and equitable terms as declared under this chapter.

Service area means the geographic area that will be served by the city's drainage utility, established in section 86.504 and conforming to the limitations of V.T.C.A., Local Government Code § 402.044.

User means the person who owns or occupies a benefitted property.

Wholly sufficient and privately owned drainage system means land owned and operated by a person other than a municipal drainage utility system the drainage of which does not discharge into a creek, river, slough, culvert, or other channel that is part of a municipal drainage utility system.

(Ord. No. 1999-55, § 1, 7-12-99; Ord. No. 2016-12, § 3, 5-3-16 )