Municipal officials examined the potential structure of a credit program for the town’s stormwater fees during a meeting March 4.
For the majority of Murrysville property owners, the primary available credit would be a one-time $40 reduction for installing a rain barrel.
“Most communities we’ve looked at seem to be using something along those lines,” Chief Administrator Michael Nestico said. Nestico noted 78% of customers would pay $120 or less annually, adding most owners of single-family attached or detached homes would be assessed a baseline $7 monthly fee, or $84 per year.
Council voted in late 2025 to begin assessing stormwater fees, based primarily on the amount of impervious surface on a given property.
For large single-family properties of 3 acres or more, homeowners would have the option to receive credits for various “best-management practices,” or BMPs, such as catch basins, swales, permeable pavement or rain gardens. Those same options would be available for nonresidential and commercial properties, though Nestico added that many already have some BMPs in place.
“We’ve seen that most communities offer something up to a 35% reduction on their bill,” Nestico said. “There are a lot of properties out there that do have BMPs — new properties are required to have them — so they would still be eligible for that reduction.”
Councilman Michael Korns, who serves as a solicitor in several Western Pennsylvania towns, said he wanted to ensure the credit program is applied equitably.
“For large property owners, particularly if they’re demonstrating that they’re not impacting the stormwater system, I think it’s worth discussing whether it’s fair that they can only get a small percentage credit,” Korns said. “If the purpose is to raise money, I get that. But if a property owner is capturing 100% of the stormwater … it doesn’t seem equitable that they could only get a credit for 35%.”
Nestico said other local programs staff researched offered credits ranging from 25% to 35%.
“We tried to find a way to make it fair and equitable across the board,” Nestico said. “But if the discount is too steep, then it’s really only favorable to the higher ratepayers.”
For most single-family homes, Nestico said investing in BMPs would not be practical because the investment would be significantly greater than the credit received on an $84 annual bill.
Council President Mac McKenna said the board should gather more information before the next meeting.
“I think we want things to be simple, but we also want businesses to be able to get credit if they’re doing all the right things,” McKenna said.
Korns expressed concern the calculation method could result in costly outliers. “It can scale to some crazy numbers if you just apply a formula mechanically,” he said.
Nestico noted appeals are built into both the fees and the credit program. While the fee program was approved late last year, Nestico said he did not want to send bills until the credit program was finalized.
He suggested further discussion at the March 17 or April 1 meetings.
“The direction staff will want from council is how do you want to structure the maximum credit amount, and what types of BMPs would you want properties to be eligible for,” he said.
Council agendas are posted in advance at Murrysville.com.