Residents along Great Miami River could pay thousands for flood protection

While the waters from a catastrophic 1913 flood of the Great Miami River have long receded, the bills to keep it from flooding like that again could soon rise significantly,

A proposed property assessment and rate hike has residents, officials and even a congressman questioning how communities can pay for flood protection and what power certain agencies should have to raise rates.

The cities of Hamilton and Middletown just north of Cincinnati fear the tax bills could devastate them and discourage new residents or businesses from moving there.

“It’s going to destroy our city,” said Hamilton City Councilman Michael Ryan at a public meeting on Monday.

That historic flood over 100 years ago killed more than 300 people and swept away homes, businesses and bridges along the 160-mile-long river that flows from Logan County south past Middletown, Hamilton and Cleves into the Ohio River. Residents in 1915 banded together, hired an engineer and formed the Miami Conservancy District to build and maintain a flood control system that keeps the Great Miami River and its tributaries in check.

A century-old formula

Property owners along the Great Miami River and its tributaries pay for those dams and levees with a property tax assessment based on the level of benefit received from the flood protection. Two months ago, some of the owners of 47,000 individual properties submerged by the 1913 flood received a shock.

They faced hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars starting next year in annual property assessments on their tax bills to pay for flood control. The three-member conservancy board of directors, appointed by a board of judges from each county in the district, recommended for the first time in 12 years a reassessment of the properties based on the new home values. They also recommended fee increases for capital and maintenance.

The nine-member conservancy court, made up of elected common pleas court judges, will decide this summer what to assess properties.

It's the seventh time in the conservancy's 109-year history that the conservancy's cost to property owners has been reassessed.

For most, the increase wouldn't be astronomical. About 84% of the property owners would pay less than $250 annually, according to Miami Conservancy District statistics. Some, however, would see assessments of $10,000 or even $100,000 annually.

One sports complex in Hamilton would see its annual bill go from $8,800 annually to $477,000.

It's based on a century-old formula of how much water the 1913 flood covered on each property and the value of the property. The conservancy calls it an appraisal of benefits because it is meant to assess the benefit property owners receive from the flood controls. Most of the properties affected, 80%, are in Butler and Montgomery counties. The rest are spread among Hamilton, Warren and Miami counties.

Why now? The levees and dams are aging, needing $35 million to $55 million in repairs over the next eight years, according to conservancy officials.

"We are over 100 years old," said Don O'Connor, chief engineer for the conservancy, in a public meeting on Monday. "The amount of work now, the big chunk of that is the concrete work at the dams. That concrete is over 100 years old."

The 55 miles of levies and five major dams the conservancy maintains have only become more critical as the number of heavy rain events has increased 228 times compared to 80 years ago, said Miami Conservancy General Manager MaryLynn Lodor. Since the system was constructed in 1922, the dams and levees have held back 2,149 floods, Lodor said.

The conservancy brings in $6.3 million a year while incurring $9 million in expenses, according to Lodor. The conservancy fills in the gap with reserves and grants, she said, but is currently operating with a $1.5 million deficit. The new assessments would have brought in $5 million more per year, she said.

"This is a devastating flood that occurred in 1913," Lodor said. "And the system has worked. That system is over 100 years old now."

Leaders grapple with how to pay for flood control

Faced with a huge backlash, the Miami Conservancy District general manager said she would recommend to the conservancy's three-member board to pause the new assessments. The board will meet on Friday at Hamilton City Hall at 4 p.m. to discuss the matter.

In the meantime, leaders hope to figure out a solution for local flood control. Rep. Warren Davidson, a Republican from Troy who represents the people who live along the Great Miami River, in a letter addressed to Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio General Assembly, asked leaders to "review and update" the laws related to the state's 20 conservancy districts.

"Since the assessments were announced late last month, my office has heard countless desperate requests for assistance for what has been described as '"'taxation without representation,'" Davidson wrote in the letter obtained by The Enquirer from his office.

Officials in Middletown and Hamilton suggested spreading the cost among more property owners throughout the watershed. Currently residents of five counties pay the conservancy to maintain the five dams and 55 miles of levees on the Great Miami: Hamilton, Butler, Warren, Miami and Montgomery.

The Middletown City Council voted Monday to ask the conservancy board to pause any assessment or rate change for two years so the General Assembly can figure out a more equitable way to charge people for flood protection.

Lawmakers will have a tough time finding a formula many people can agree on, said Benjamin Yoder, Middletown's attorney.

“In essence, you’re getting into property owners' rights, property owner benefits, property owner detriments," Yoder said. "There’s no simple fix of an easy red line.”

'They'll drown us in unpayable debt'

Whatever the solution, David Stark wants a promise that the cost for individual properties won't go up thousands of dollars. Stark manages an apartment complex geared toward artists called ArtSpace Hamilton Lofts in Hamilton.

The new assessment by the conservancy would have taken the amount the Artspace pays the conservancy from $1,200 a year to almost $11,000. That would make the affordable apartments for artists less affordable, he said. It would also mean less art being bought and created, threatening Hamilton's burgeoning art scene, Stark said.

"I can't stress enough how grateful we all are that we're not wet under flood," Stark said. "But these rates are so astronomically high, they'll drown us in an unpayable debt."

After learning in March what the conservancy planned, Stark and other Hamiltonians filled public meetings to oppose the increase. They created T-shirts emblazoned with "Keep Hamilton Afloat."

Perhaps one of the hardest hit would be 1.2 million-square-foot Spooky Nook sports complex, which would see its conservancy bill go from $8,800 a year to $477,000 annually under the proposed assessment.

What exactly that would do to the newly opened complex that hosts regional tournaments in basketball, soccer and other sports, management wasn't sure. It wouldn't be good, said Mike Dollard, chief financial officer for Spooky Nook. He wouldn't speculate what an annual charge of almost a half-million dollars would do to Spooky Nook. But he's concerned this could scare residents and businesses away.

"Even this discussion and the possibility that this could happen is, I'll say, is debilitating to development and future development," Dollard said.

Conservancy will look at other options

Leaders with the conservancy said they've heard the concerns and will consider other options. Exactly what those options would be, Lodor, the Miami Conservancy general manager, wouldn't specify.

Lodor said on Friday she'll ask for a pause in the reassessments of the property, but the rate increases, a 1% increase for capital projects and a 0.59% increase in maintenance, will remain. She said the bulk of the large increases were due to large hikes in property values, not the rate increases.

"We want to really look at this with an open mind but also quickly and expeditiously," Lodor said. "It's critical that we make sure that we're able to continue to provide that flood protection to the communities we serve."

The conservancy will decide in July how it wants to fund maintenance and capital projects for next year, Lodor said.

What is a conservancy district?

There are 20 conservancies around the state, with varying responsibilities and staff. Some don't have any staff. Some are small and just maintain parks and do basic upkeep, such as mowing lawns and repairing playground equipment. Others are multimillion-dollar-a-year operations that maintain dams, parks and hundreds of miles of waterways.

There's a conservancy that protects the Mill Creek, the Mill Creek Valley Conservancy District. The Mill Creek Conservancy in 2018 considered imposing a property tax assessment for maintenance. After opposition from the public, the fee was never imposed.

The Miami Conservancy District, headquartered in Dayton, has a staff of 49 that not only maintains flood protection along the Great Miami River but also maintains trails and boat ramps and preserves water quality on the river. State law sets out the rules for how conservancy districts operate and are created.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Residents along Great Miami River could pay thousands for flood protection