(January 10, 2023) Concerns rise among Reno residents when wet weather hits the region like it has these first two weeks of 2023. 

Officials are hoping that a new stormwater utility fee could help. 

The City of Reno tells us the funding could result in huge improvements for areas that see frequent flooding. 

The City and its residents, including Fritz Hoffman, are well aware that Sagittarius Drive in Reno turns into a pool of water anytime there's heavy rain. 

Fritz tells us she's seen the floodwaters raging there... "And this is pretty moderate. I've seen it a lot worse."

Joe Coudriet with the City tells us in that area, "water basically will overwhelm the roadside ditch and storm drainage downstream." 

The City tells us, right now, it doesn't have the funding to fix these issues. It can bring in emergency crews into those areas to help, but there is no dedicated stormwater fund to keep water off roads permanently. 

Trina Magoon, Director of Utility Services for the City, says "We're out there patching things up. Often times, we have to patch things up multiple times, but we're not actually fixing the problem." 

Trina and her team say their plan is to ask the Reno City Council to approve a new stormwater utility fee. 

The fee would cost the average homeowner $10 to $15 a month or more, depending on the property. 

The City says the money would create a stream of funding to permanently fix some of the frequent flooding problems.  

Coudriet says "Additional funding through a potential stormwater utility, which the City is looking at right now, would allow us to tackle projects like this and so that they don't have to be recurring problems. They can be addressed."

"The stormwater utility fee would enable us to do that and fix problems that we've known about for potentially 20 plus years," said Magoon. 

Utilities Services is planning to pitch the new fee increase to the Reno City Council at a meeting in February or March. 

The City is currently taking feedback from businesses on the fee. That survey is available at reno.gov.