Stormwater is any high volume of water caused by rain, snow or melting ice. Making sure our city can handle this high volume of water helps protect our properties from unnecessary damage.
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Stormwater user fee
Properly managing stormwater in Kitchener requires constant attention. We fund our stormwater management through a user fee program in which you pay a monthly stormwater management fee based on how much stormwater runoff your property creates.
The amount of stormwater runoff your property creates is determined by how much of it is covered in impervious surfaces. This kind of surface creates a lot of runoff because it doesn’t allow water to be absorbed into the earth. Impervious surfaces include:
- buildings
- driveways
- parking lots
Non-residential properties tend to have more of these surfaces and as a result tend to pay higher stormwater fees to account for their greater share of stormwater runoff.
Your stormwater fee can be found on your monthly utility bill alongside water and sewer rates.
Monthly charges by property type
Residential
- small detached homes with building footprint size of 105 m2 or less: $12.07
- medium detached homes with building footprint between 106-236 m2: $20.15
- large detached homes with building footprint size of 237 m2 or more: $26.48
- townhouse or semi-detached per dwelling unit: $14.38
- residential condominium per dwelling unit: $8.01
- duplex, per building: $16.12
- triplex, per building: $24.23
- four-plex, per building: $32.21
- five-plex, per building: $40.32
- residential property with more than five units, per unit: $4.05
Non-residential
- 26 to 1,051 m2 of impervious area: $38.54
- 1,052 to 1,640 m2 of impervious area: $103.05
- 1,641 to 7,676 m2 of impervious area: $270
- 7,677 to 16,324 m2 of impervious area: $788.17
- 16,325 to 39,034 m2 of impervious area: $1,910.23
- 39,035 m2 or greater of impervious area: $4,100.84