Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett is asking the County Council for a last-minute appropriation of about $250,000 from the current budget to pay for a new countywide storm-water drainage program.
His request is in response to a bill — coaxed along by Council Member Nancy Floreen in the fall — that will require anyone applying for a county building permit to provide a storm-water management plan as of March 1.
Specifically, the $258,620 supplemental amount would enable the county to hire seven people devoted to the issue and to pay for the management plan itself.
According to Leggett’s memo included with the request, which was introduced Tuesday, three of the staff members would serve as permitting service specialists, three as permitting service inspectors and one as a permitting services manager.
If the council gives the green light for the allocation, it would come from Montgomery’s Permitting Services Fund, composed entirely of permitting fees paid by residents.
Floreen’s bill requires that builders of certain new residential structures will have to submit plans showing the locations of drainage facilities along with plans for the development sites.
The builders also will have to minimize water runoff, showing that their properties can hold 1.5 inches of rainfall during a 24-hour period.
Floreen said she had been hearing complaints from her constituents for some time about the severe damage incurred during storms, which is why she crafted the legislation.
Leggett’s funding request is scheduled to be discussed during a public hearing on Feb. 6.
In a memorandum on the proposed allocation, he said he was making the request months after the annual budgeting process because Floreen’s bill did not pass until October.
