§ 11-13-1. Definitions.

Terms defined herein are specific to this Chapter and shall not be construed as conflicting with similar terms in other parts of the Municipal Code. Terms not otherwise defined herein shall be given the definitions contained in the Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 552, Subchapter C.

(A)

The Act means the Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 552, Subchapter C, as may be amended.

(B)

Benefitted Property means an improved lot or parcel to which drainage utility service is made available under this Chapter.

(C)

City Manager means the City of Midland's City Manager or a designee thereof.

(D)

Commercial property means any benefitted property other than Residential Property and includes, but is not limited to, commercial, industrial, institutional, government, multi-family, mobile home park, and religious organization land uses.

(E)

Cost of service means the costs for Drainage System service to a Benefitted Property, which shall be the total of:

(1)

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 draining the benefitted property;

(2)

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

(3)

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)

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

(5)

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)

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)

Administrative costs of operating and maintaining a drainage utility system.

(F)

Development Services Director means the Director of the City of Midland's Development Services Department or a designee thereof.

(G)

Drainage means the system of public works owned or controlled in whole or in part by the City and including, but not limited to, bridges, catch basins, channels, conduits, creeks, culverts, curbs and gutters, detention ponds, ditches, draws, flumes, pipes, pumps, sloughs, streets, 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. See also Drainage System.

(H)

Drainage charge means:

(1)

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

(2)

An amount made in contribution to funding of future drainage system construction by the City.

(I)

Drainage system means the system of public works owned or controlled in whole or in part by the City and dedicated to the service of Drainage, including any future additions, extensions, and improvements thereto and replacement thereof.

(J)

Drainage utility means a drainage service that is regularly provided by the City through City 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 the Act.

(K)

Engineering Services Director means the Director of the City of Midland's Engineering Services Department or a designee thereof.

(L)

Equivalent residential unit ("ERU") means the unit of measure used to calculate the drainage charge for residential and commercial property, and it is based on the average impervious area for single-family residential property within the City determined as an arithmetic mean of the total impervious area of all single family residential property, or of a statistically significant sample of all single family residential property, as represented by the area of the footprint of each building on a Residential Property within the City limits in U.S. square feet either reported by MCAD or as measured on the City's GIS Database. The ERU for the City is 2,002 square feet.

(M)

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

(N)

Finance Director means the Director of the City of Midland's Finance Department or a designee thereof.

(O)

GIS database means the geographic information systems database that is assembled, managed and disseminated by the City.

(P)

Impervious area means a surface which has become compacted or covered with a layer of material so that it is highly resistant to infiltration by water and includes, but is not limited to, caliche and gravel surfaces subject to motorized vehicular traffic, walkways, buildings, parking lots, pavement, and ingress/egress driveways. Impervious area does not include sidewalks located in the public right-of-way. For purposes of this definition, a walkway is a pedestrian path in the interior of an improved lot or parcel that is not located in the public right-of-way.

(Q)

Improved lot or parcel means a lot or parcel that has a structure, as that term is defined in Section 11-1-17 of the Municipal Code, or other improvement on it that creates an impervious area.

(R)

MCAD means the Midland County Appraisal District database of lot sizes and building square footages.

(S)

Parcel means one or more lots or portions of lots that are contiguous and under single ownership.

(T)

Residential property means any benefitted property containing not more than one single-family home, duplex, triplex, quadplex, condominium, or manufactured home.

(U)

Service Area means the municipal boundaries of the City and includes all real property within the city limits of the City as now existing and all which may be annexed hereafter.

(V)

User means an owner or occupant of a benefitted property or a person or entity who is responsible for paying for water, sewer, or garbage collection services provided by the City at a benefitted property.

(W)

Wholly sufficient and privately owned drainage system means drainage from an Improved Lot or Parcel which does not discharge into any natural or manmade waterway or drainage infrastructure including public streets, storm drains, culverts, drainage easements, or storm water ponds that are part of the drainage system.

( Ord. No. 9752 , § 1, 4-10-2018)