Clay County homeowners in unincorporated areas will start paying a new stormwater fee Oct. 1. The Board of County Commissioners approved the charge in a 3-2 vote Wednesday, Aug. 26.
Commissioners John Sgromolo, Jim Renninger and Chair Kristen Burke voted in favor. Commissioners Betsy Condon and Alexandra Compere voted against it.
Hundreds of residents packed the meeting room, an overflow room, the building lobby and much of the parking lot to oppose the fee, Clay News & Views reported. Public comment began around 5:45 p.m. and stretched past five hours. Burke threatened to eject attendees for standing, clapping or speaking out of turn. Compere was the only commissioner who sat through the entire session.
The vote was 3-2.
The commission adopted the fee at a reduced amount from what had been previously proposed. The specific reduction has not been detailed in available county records.
Most homeowners will fall into one of three tiers based on impervious surface area: $51 a year for properties with 400 to 2,825 square feet of hard surface, $85 a year for 2,826 to 5,400 square feet, and $161.50 a year for more than 5,400 square feet. The fee is calculated using a standard unit called an Equivalent Residential Unit, or ERU, equal to 3,780 square feet of impervious surface such as roofs, driveways and patios.
The county expects to collect $9,244,095 in the fee's first year, based on the rate the board set July 28, Clay News & Views reported. The charge will first appear on tax bills mailed in November.
The resolution also sets a ceiling of $120 per ERU. That is a 41% increase the board could approve in future years without repeating the mailed-notice and public-hearing process required for the initial rate.
A county business impact estimate identifies 93,514 parcels subject to the fee, including 85,048 residential and 8,466 non-residential parcels. About 10,000 businesses are estimated to be affected.
The fee does not apply to properties inside Orange Park, Green Cove Springs, Keystone Heights or Penney Farms, which run their own stormwater programs. Some property owners may qualify for reductions: those with a permitted private stormwater system can receive a 25% credit, residential parcels of five acres or more qualify for a 50% reduction, and bona fide farm operations can be fully exempted.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection issued Clay County a Notice of Non-Compliance in November 2024 after auditing its stormwater program. The county has cited more than $30 million in needed capital improvements, based on a 2025 Stormwater Master Plan by Jones Edmunds & Associates, as justification for the fee. A similar fee was voted down in 2019 after citizen opposition.
Burke presented a list of cost savings she said showed the county had cut spending before turning to a new fee. Sgromolo and Renninger read prepared remarks at the meeting. Condon said she could not support the fee as it was constituted, according to Clay News & Views. She had voted for the fee at a November 2025 meeting and again in July before switching her vote.
Veteran garbage exemption cut in half
In a separate vote the same night, the commission reduced the disabled veteran exemption for solid waste fees from 100% to 50%.
The exemption covers veterans with a service-connected total and permanent disability. Under the previous policy, the county paid the full $358 annual solid waste bill on behalf of eligible veterans. That covers a $262 curbside pickup assessment and a $96 disposal assessment. Eligible veterans will now pay $179 a year.
