Posted on March - 29 - 2010
21 parties hope to intervene in sewer district lawsuit
A group of property owners and real estate groups are seeking to oppose a legal effort by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.
The 21 parties — including the Northeast Ohio Apartment Association, the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants, the Cleveland Automobile Dealers Association and individual property owners — filed a motion Wednesday asking Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Timothy McMonagle to allow them to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the sewer district that asks the court to grant the district the right to manage storm water and to impose a user fee to cover the cost of mitigating storm water runoff.
Storm water runoff erodes river banks, clogs sewers and flushes pollutants into the region’s rivers and streams.
The groups and property owners argue that their interests are not adequately represented in the lawsuit, which would ultimately result in higher operating costs for them in their roles as landlords and tenants.
In a memorandum to a group of his clients in February, real estate attorney Sheldon Berns, who now represents the intervening parties, argued that money to manage storm water problems should be provided by a tax approved by voters rather than a sewer district user fee. He also said local counties would be the proper managers of storm water mitigation, not a district led by an unelected board.
In addition, Mr. Berns’ memorandum questions the legal authority of the sewer district, which was created in 1972 to collect and treat waste water at its water treatment plants.
The sewer district’s footprint includes most, but not all, of Cuyahoga County, a handful of communities in Summit County and a corner of Columbia Township in Lorain County.
However, some communities manage their own sewer systems and have not imposed a storm water fee. Mr. Berns contended that those property owners, whose runoff contributes to the drainage problems the sewer district’s fee would be used to ease, won’t be paying for their share of the cleanup.
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