UPDATE: After months of presentations, debate and plan revisions, the Oviedo City Council voted 4-1 to increase its stormwater and water utility rates at its Monday meeting. The increase will be backdated to go into effect Feb. 1. Council member Alan Ott was the lone vote against the increase.
Read below for full details of how the increase will impact Oviedo residents and what the money will be used for. The following is the article that was originally published Jan. 29:
Oviedo residents will be seeing a significant rate increase on their upcoming utility bills.
Due to “economic inflation, aging infrastructure and facilities, climate and increased population impacts and … changes in state and federal regulations” affecting Oviedo’s water and stormwater utilities for the next decade, Oviedo City Council is set to approve a utility rate adjustment through 2033 at its Feb. 3 meeting, which will take place at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 400 Alexandria Blvd. in Oviedo.
The city’s utility system is made up of its water utility, which includes potable water, wastewater and reclaimed water, and stormwater utility, which is in a separate fund. All will be serviced as part of the rate increases.
The city of Oviedo’s proposed stormwater improvement projects (Map provided by Willdan Financial Services)
If passed, “the rate hike will still go into effect on Feb. 1, and will be retroactive” as the meters are read during the first week of February, according to Oviedo communications manager/public information officer Lisa McDonald.
Users would see a stormwater rate adjustment of 25% for the remaining fiscal year — which ends Sept. 30 — and the next fiscal year, before the rate of increases switches to 15% in each of the following three fiscal years. It would change to a 12% increase in 2030 before stabilizing at 10% increases for the final three years. Over the course of the adjustments, stormwater rates would increase more than 280% from the current monthly rate per equivalent residential unit — every home is considered an equivalency — according to the city’s and consultant estimations.
For context, stormwater rates increased 2% for fiscal year 2025, beginning Oct. 1, 2024.
The proposed stormwater rate adjustments through 2033. (Table provided by Willdan Financial Services)
In addition to the stormwater increases, users would see a 9% increase in their water utility rates. While numbers provided by the city for the water utility are based on a monthly average usage of between 7,000 and 8,000 gallons of water, Oviedo’s finance director Jerry Boop said most customers use between 3,000 and 4,000 gallons monthly. Previously, the city used the Consumer Price Index to help determine water utility rate increases, Boop said.
The city brought in financial services firm Willdan to look at the options and perform a stormwater rate study. Willdan recommends lowering the increase to 6% in fiscal years 2030-2033.
The proposed rate adjustments for water, wastewater and reclaimed water through at least the 2029 fiscal year (Table provided by the City of Oviedo)
“The unfortunate thing is that there are some real high users out there and they kind of skew the normalcy of what’s consumed,” Boop said.
For customers curious about finding what their new rates will be, they can multiply their current stormwater rate by 1.25, and their current water rate by 1.09.
“The stormwater utility has never had the right annual increase, and the thought was we want to be very, very careful as to how we project our rates going forward,” Boop said. “What has happened, unfortunately, is that it’s come to light that we really need to develop the kind of stormwater facilities here at the city that are very robust and that can handle the types of storms that we’ve had in the past.
”We want to do as much as we possibly can to mitigate the flooding that’s taken place, and redirect the water so we don’t have the blowouts … to make sure that our system functions like it should function,” he said.
Boop stressed that with systems as old as Oviedo’s, which he said were designed and implemented more than 20 years ago, when its population was much at about half its current rate, it is difficult to serve the city at its current needs.
”It’s caused us to take a very close look at our systems to develop the kind of systems here at the city that protect the citizens,” he said. “And that’s what we’re endeavoring to do: We protect the citizens.”
The increase was expected to be voted on by council during its Jan. 21 meeting, but due to having further questions and with council members Jeff Boddiford and Keith Britton being absent, councilmember Alan Ott asked for a continuance for its Jan. 27 work session and the Feb. 3 meeting when the vote is expected to take place.
The projected water and sewer bill increases through fiscal year 2033 based on 8,000 gallons used. (Graph via Willdan)
To meet its goals of providing “utility service sustainability for the next 10 years,” public works director Bobby Wyatt said it would require staffing and equipment requirements, infrastructure capital improvements, operations and maintenance (O&M) capabilities that take inflation into account, and contingencies for unforeseen events.
In its July 29 work session, City Council was faced with two options: spreading out the cost of the water system overhaul over a longer-term timeline or more than doubling rates for customers immediately.
Council received further guidance from its consultant Willdan during its Sept. 30 work session.
Willdan found that the city does not have sufficient stormwater reserve funds available to take on a project of that magnitude.
“Right now … you’re breaking even [in the stormwater fund], but you don’t have money put away for these capital projects, so you’re having to look at how you’re going to fund them,” Willdan principal consultant Tara Hollis said.
While council will be voting on the 10-year plan, since the city has a policy to review stormwater rates every five years, it can be adjusted in the future.
Oviedo “anticipates the use of long-term debt to finance approximately $50.7 million of the current utility systems’ required capital improvement program,” it wrote on its information page about the increases.
“The rate we are charging is too low, and it has been for many years,” Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek wrote on Facebook prior to the Jan. 21 meeting.
Willdan looked at the current stormwater bill comparisons with a number of other cities in Central Florida — Ocoee, New Smyrna Beach, Kissimmee, Casselberry, Cape Canaveral, Maitland, DeLand, South Daytona, Winter Park, Daytona Beach, Orlando, Edgewater, Debary and Deltona — and found that at its current rates, Oviedo residents’ average payments of $11.72 were slightly above the average rate of $11.17 for the group of cities. With the increase, Oviedo would immediately be the highest per equivalent residential connection at $14.65. The current highest rate — Deltona’s — is at $14.17.
Current and proposed water and sewer utility projects in Oviedo (Map via Willdan)
The water utility and stormwater improvements have nearly 90 proposed projects, including, but not limited to:
- Pipeline improvements
- Treatment and pumping facility improvements
- Engineering studies
- New public works facilities
- New Lower Floridian Aquifer well
- New raw water transmission pipeline
- New advanced alternative water treatment system
- New wastewater plant discharge force main
- New wastewater treatment equipment
- Infrastructure upgrades
- Best stormwater management practices
- Creek/river improvements
- Culvert improvements
- Flood improvements
- Pond improvements
- Conveyance improvements
- Basin studies
- Pipelining
- Improvements to Sweetwater Creek
- Flood forecasting for the Little and Big Econlockhatchee rivers
- Water quality improvements
- Flood control/flood reduction
“We see stuff coming, and instead of trying to just wait and address it at the last second, we’re trying to hit it now, especially when some of the costs on the upfront side, like engineering … can be addressed now at a lower cost, because everything goes up,” Wyatt said. “Inflation hits us just as much as it hits anybody else.
“We want to address it now and deal with it and help the city for the future.”
Want to share your input with your elected leaders? If you would like to contact your city council members, click here.
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