The City of Bonita Springs owns and operates an extensive stormwater management system in the City. The system is designed to mitigate flooding, protect individual and personal property, manage water quality of receiving waters and comply with regulatory requirements.
The City adopted the Imperial River Basin Management Plan in November 2012, in conjunction with, the state of Florida to improve water quality in the Imperial River. Recently, the City experienced significant flooding in the summer of 2017.
In August 2017, the city experienced two major rainfall events – Invest 92L (August 23 to 28) and Hurricane Irma (September 9 and 10). Hurricane Irma hit Bonita Springs as a Category 3 storm and the City was the third hardest hit community in the state according to FEMA. The rainfall from both the Invest 92L and Hurricane Irma were historic storm events on their own. The significance of the two storms was that they occurred less than two weeks apart.
Water levels were still high from the Invest 92L storm when Hurricane Irma hit. In some areas, water levels were 3.5 feet higher prior to the hurricane that they were prior to Invest 92L. This led to historic flooding within the Imperial River Watershed area. In some areas of Bonita Springs, the peak water levels from the two storms were 6.5 feet higher than the water levels before July 31st.
These events emphasized the need to study the existing stormwater infrastructure and identify any challenges that may be present.
At the September 9, 2019 City Council voted to assess property owners to provide a dedicated funding source for the management of the City’s stormwater system. The Council amended the residential assessment for two (2) categories to add a square foot caveat. They are: residential structures (condominiums, small homes, mobile homes, etc.) with less than 1,800 square feet or residential structures with more than 1,800 square feet of impervious surface on the property. The residential structures assessment is $20 and $50, respectively. Commercial properties assessments are based on actual square footage of impervious area.
The definition of Impervious Surface is any hard surface that does not readily absorb water and impedes the natural flow of water into the soil. In general, impervious surfaces include roadways, sidewalks, driveways, building roofs, parking lots, patios, laundry rooms, covered carports, brick pavers, etc.
Each property’s impervious areas is estimated using the existing Lee County Property Appraiser information combined with remote sensing tools to determine the square footage for each assessment.