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Street Maintenance Program

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Q: What is the Street Maintenance Fee?
The Street Maintenance Fee is a monthly fee designed specifically for the maintenance of existing roads in Tigard. Monthly fees are collected from both residential and non-residential customers and are billed and collected through the City's utility billing system.

Q: How is the Street Maintenance Fee charged?
A: The Street Maintenance Fee is assessed on your bimonthly utility bill.

Q: Your website states that the current rate for residential users is $2.18 per month, but when I check my utility bill the amount charged for the Street Maintenance Fee is twice that amount ($4.36), why?
A: Because the City of Tigard sends out utility bills on a bimonthly schedule (every two months), the amount shown on your bill is actually for two months.

Q: Why is a fee increase being proposed?
A: When the existing Street Maintenance Fee was established in 2004, the target revenue was set at $800,000 a year. Because an inflation adjustment was not built into the program, fees have remained constant while City needs and the costs of repairs have increased dramatically. In other words, the existing fees are not enough to maintain a healthy road system in good condition.

Q: If the proposed increase is approved, how much will my rates increase and when?
The proposed fee increases are from $2.18 to $6.06 monthly for residential units, and from $0.78 to $2.44 per required parking space for non-residential uses. Increases will be phased in over two years so that by 2011, the fees charged will be at the level needed to adequately maintain the streets and rights-of-way. An inflation factor of 6.5% annually is incorporated in the phase-in plan to ensure that the fees collected in 2011 will be at the level needed at that time. After 2011, any future increases to account for inflation will be based on one or more recognized construction cost indices.

Q: How are residential and commercial fees determined?
The original 5-year plan developed in 2003 resulted in the residential uses paying for 58% of the costs and the non-residential uses 42%. The new 5-year plan developed in 2008 changes the ratio to 55% to 45% because the City's experience during the past 5 years has been that the larger main arteries of the City (collectors and arterial roads) require more frequent and extensive maintenance than do neighborhood roads. More than half the costs are still borne by residential uses.

Among non-residential users, the largest payers are still the big businesses, but the maximum charges are capped at 200 spaces (non-residential users are charged on the number of parking spaces required in the Tigard Development Code). Although Washington Square and other shopping centers appear to be one entity, in reality they are a collection of separate businesses, each charged individually, with a 200-space cap. Charges are associated with each water meter and assessed based on the square footage for each business.

Q: Are exceptions allowed?
A: All religious institutions will be charged half of the normal fee assessed to non-residential businesses, resulting in a 100-space maximum for those that reach the 200 space limit. This decision was made because parking requirements for these institutions are relatively high to accommodate large services, while the parking lots are not fully utilized during the week.

In addition, a property must be occupied to be assessed the fee. If a property is unoccupied for 30 days or more, the owner may apply for a fee waiver for that period.

Q: What is the pavement condition on my street?
A: You can visit Tigard Maps and look up the pavement rating data for your street. Once you enter your address and are routed to the page displaying your property, just click on the Transportation tab at the top of the page, then choose pavement condition. It's that simple!

Q: Why consider raising rates during a down economy?

A: The City is looking to be fiscally responsible with your Street Maintenance Fee dollars. Streets are designed to last about 20 years, but the pavement begins to deteriorate much earlier. Studies have shown that pavement health worsens at an increasing rate as the pavement gets older. The total annual maintenance investment is four to five time less following a preventative maintenance strategy than if streets are allowed to deteriorate to poor and failed conditions requiring major rehabilitation.

Q: Why can't the City wait until the economy improves?
A: The costs of deferred maintenance are born by both the community and the individual driver. As with many investments, timely investments in routine maintenance in roads can extend pavement life and provide for a safer driving experience. Not only will roads last longer, but repairing a failed road can be 4 to 9 times more expensive than a routine maintenance program. With a limited amount of funds available, the community is better served by spending the same amount of money maintaining a greater amount of road miles, than completely rebuilding smaller sections as the entire network begins to fail. In other words, if we can keep good streets good, we can maximize the use of limited dollars.

Q: What about Tigard's share of state Gas Tax revenue?
A: Historically, Tigard roads have been maintained by the state Gas Tax, a source of funding that hasn't risen in 20 years, while road usage, operations and maintenance costs have increased at an overwhelming rate. As a result, Tigard is one of eighteen Oregon cities that have adopted Street Maintenance Fees to close the gap between local needs and increasingly stretched state dollars. By having a locally based fee, communities are provided with a stable source of revenue to pay for preventative maintenance and repairs in a timely and efficient manner.

Q: Will Tigard residents have an opportunity to vote on the proposed Street Maintenance Fee increase?
A: According to state law, utility rate increases need only approval by City Council. This is why your Council is making such an effort to hear from you! You can provide comments online, to staff, or at hearings held by Tigard City Council.

Q: What legislative steps are required to raise the fees?
In order for the City to raise fees, the Council must vote on the following items. Each will occur at a public hearing where public testimony will be taken prior to a Council vote.

Revise Ordinance No. 03-10 to add right-of-way maintenance as an integral part of street maintenance under the definition of street maintenance;
Revise Ordinance No. 03-10 to include local commercial and industrial streets under the non-residential category for fee calculation purposes;
Revise Ordinance No. 03-10 to incorporate an annual inflation factor to ensure that the fee rates keep pace with cost increases or decreases;
Adopt a Resolution to set the City's long term Street Overall Condition Index goal at 75; and
Adopt new fee rates with a phase-in plan incorporated.

Q: The City of Tigard instituted a 3 cent per gallon gas tax. Why can't the City use that money?
A: The Tigard gas tax was developed by a citizen task force who recommended it as a way to fund improvements to the Greenburg Rd./99W/Main St. intersection ONLY. Collections from the Tigard tax are dedicated to this one project, and the tax automatically ceases once $5 million is raised or on December 31, 2011, whichever comes first.

Tigard Street Maintenance Update

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