Johnson County and Southern Indy News

Greenwood Simplifies or Eliminates Business Startup Fee

Good news for businesses moving into or within Greenwood’s sanitation sewer service area! The City of Greenwood is simplifying its formula to calculate the sewer availability fee (SAF), often cited by business as outdated and unfair. This will better enable business owners to budget for the exact fee required in advance of opening. In some cases, the formula change will ELIMINATE the fee assessment altogether. For these reasons, the Chamber believes the SAF formula changes will most benefit small and mid-sized businesses.

Previously, the SAF was assessed when a new property first connected to the sanitary sewer system. It was also assessed when the use of a property changed (typically due to a new tenant), and the new use was predicted to increase waste into the system. While the concept sounded logical on the surface, businesses often complained about the formula used to calculate the fee.

What were the concerns? Businesses primarily cited the formula as unfair because it assumed all establishments in a given industry operated the same. For example, the formula counted the number of seats in a restaurant, even if the seats were in a less-frequently used private meeting room, and even if the restaurant was only open for one meal a day. The second most commonly cited concern was related to relocating an existing business within the service area. Because the fee is credited to the property, businesses often paid the fee multiples times when relocating their business from one property to another without increasing the size of their water meter – and thus the demand on the sanitary system – at the new location.

Gone is the complicated matrix difficult to estimate and understand! The new SAF formula is a simple schedule based on the size of the water meter installed at the property. This means the SAF is a one-time charge that will be assessed at the time a property first connects to the sanitary sewer utility, or when a property use change actually requires a larger water meter.

If you are already connected to the Greenwood sanitary sewer service, this fee will not impact you unless you install a larger water meter.

Most importantly, the fee change is smart economic development policy. New and expanding businesses can completely avoid paying the SAF if they buy or lease a space already connected to the system and with sufficient water meter service. This will enable entrepreneurs to better direct their dollars to growing jobs and services.

A new sanitation sewer application form and fee schedule will be posted to the City’s website in the near future, providing business owners a greater sense of transparency and budget certainty.