Zephyrhills Sets Sept. 14 Hearing on Stormwater Fee; $118 a Year Still on the Table

Zephyrhills property owners are in line for a new charge on their annual tax bill, and the number attached to it is still unsettled. City Council adopted Ordinance No. 1522-26 on June 22, creating a citywide stormwater utility and a non-ad valorem stormwater assessment, then stopped short of approving the rate. The figure on the table is $118 a year for a typical home, roughly $9.83 a month, and the same number would be used to work out what commercial properties pay. The final hearing is set for Sept. 14 at City Hall, 5335 8th St.

Nothing lands on a tax bill until that rate is adopted. That is the part worth circling on a calendar: the ordinance itself is done, but the price is not.

Why the council split

Councilman Lance Smith pushed back on the $118 figure during the June meeting, warning that a charge that size would break some residents financially. Enough of that concern was in the room that council voted to move the assessment forward and table the rate discussion for a later date.

Residents in the flood-prone pockets of the city have been making a different argument. One woman who lives near Ninth Avenue, Elouise Welch, told reporters she and her neighbors had to weave through side streets to get home after Hurricane Milton, and that while the added cost will be a strain on a fixed income, the drainage work has to happen.

What Milton exposed

The city's public works director, Shane LeBlanc, has described Milton as a biblical rain event: about 18 inches of rain in 12 hours, streets underwater, trees down. The retention pond on Ninth Avenue overflowed. According to records obtained by local media outlets, 64 complaints about stormwater drain problems have been filed with the city since the storm.

Zephyrhills has already spent money on the problem without a dedicated funding source. The city bought three houses that flooded during Milton, tore them down, and is now having those parcels designed and permitted as additional retention ponds.

Right now stormwater work competes for general fund dollars with police, parks and the library. The assessment would set up an enterprise fund used only for stormwater: design, permitting, personnel, maintenance, and capital projects such as drainage upgrades and pond expansions. LeBlanc has said plainly that it would give the department a pot of money it does not currently have.

The calendar between now and your tax bill

The Sept. 14 hearing does not stand alone. It sits inside the city's regular budget season, and at the July 13 budget workshop council was working from a proposed millage of 6.25 mills for fiscal year 2026-27.

When	What happens
August	First millage and budget readings
Sept. 14	Final hearing on the stormwater assessment rate
Sept. 28	Second reading on millage and budget
November	Tax bills mailed, with the assessment if adopted

Before the September hearing, two pieces of mail matter. The TRIM notice from the Pasco County Property Appraiser shows the proposed property tax side. A separate assessment notice covers the stormwater charge. Read both. The stormwater line is not property tax and is not calculated off your home's value the way millage is.

How to be heard

The Sept. 14 hearing is the designed moment for public comment on the rate, and council has already shown it is willing to move a number that draws enough objection. Written comments can be sent to City Council at 5335 8th St., Zephyrhills, FL 33542, and the City Clerk's office can be reached at 813-780-0000. Meeting agendas and packets are posted at the city's Agendas & Minutes page, usually a few days ahead.

Two things are still open. The city has not said whether $118 will be the number that goes to the September hearing or whether staff will bring back something lower, and it has not published a project-by-project list showing which streets and ponds get fixed first with the money. Council's August meetings are the next chance to press on both.

For more from City Hall, keep up with Zephyrhills Community Website and browse our other government and politics stories and local alerts. Got a flooded street the city should know about, or a take on the $118 figure? Join the conversation in our Community Forum.

Header photo: Ebyabe / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5)