Transportation Utility Fee on the horizon for Copperas Cove
By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
Copperas Cove residents and businesses with City of Copperas Cove water utility accounts should be on the lookout for a fee that could begin as soon as Oct. 1, 2025 – the start of the 2025-2026 fiscal year.
At the Feb. 21 city council retreat, one of the agenda items ended up as an hour-long discussion on a proposed transportation utility fee.
This fee would add a monthly charge to city utility customer accounts. The revenue from this fee would go toward funding city street repairs and maintenance. The amount of the fee assessed would be based on something called “single-family equivalents,” or SFEs, said Scott Osburn, Director of Public Works.
The fees would be collected from residents and businesses as part of their City of Copperas Cove water/solid waste bill, and would be based on the relative amount of vehicle traffic generated over city roadways.
Other cities collect a similar transportation utility fee – also called street maintenance fee or road maintenance fee – for the same purpose. Nearby cities include Lampasas ($7) and Killeen ($10). Waco collects $10 per month.
Currently, the city funds its street repairs and maintenance through ¼-cent of the city’s sales tax revenue, as approved via Copperas Cove voters in 2023. The street maintenance fund is separate from the city’s general fund, like the water and sewer fund, drainage fund, and solid waste fund, which operate as their own funding sources and not via property tax dollars like the general fund.
Currently, the city has about $1.26 million for the current fiscal year 2024-2025, which matches the street maintenance crew's operations and general maintenance, including filling potholes and repairing curb cuts.
Osburn said the city has completed work on Bronc Drive, Pinto Drive, Walker Boulevard (addressing issues caused by drainage over the years), and Freedom Lane and Cline Drive (addressing damage from Winter Storm Uri) as of the time of the presentation.
However, Bradford Oaks, portions of Avenue B, Grimes Crossing Road, portions of South 1st, and Sherwood are just several of the streets yet to have work done. Reconstructing Bradford Oaks alone will cost about $3 to $4.5 million, Osburn said.
Altogether, the city had 153.92 centerline miles of roadways to maintain, as of the pavement assessment study conducted in 2022, and Osburn said that number has increased as development has increased. There have been 15 miles of new streets added since the study was completed. Of those original 153.93 miles, more than 70 percent were assessed as fair, poor, and failed, with 35.6 percent of the roadways receiving a “poor” designation.
With current pavement costs, the assessment estimated that the city would need to spent around $4.6 million annually to improve the city’s Pavement Condition Index up from 63.0 in 2022 to 65.0 by 2026.
Osburn shared a draft of the proposed ordinance.
He said that a $10 per single-family equivalent monthly fee would generate approximately $4 million annually that could be used on city street repairs and maintenance.
A copy of the draft can be viewed here: https://destinyhosted.com/coppedocs/2025/CCSCW/20250221_2222/12752%5FTransportation%5FUtility%5FFee%5FDraft%5FOrdinance%5Fv.2025%5F0216.pdf.
This draft includes 55 different classifications for residential and commercial.
“You have a Single-Family Equivalent rate, and you have the Use Variable, so those things are factored in,” Osburn said.
“For example, a duplex is 0.6 Single Family Equivalent. Why? Because there's typically less people in a duplex on one side of it, and you'd be charging two, one on each side, that generate trips. And that's how this is broken down. A vet clinic is based on 1,000 square foot variable, but based on 1000 square feet, they generate 3.76 Single Family Equivalent trips per day.”
There are certain areas that remain to be decided – such as exemptions, banding/capping rates, and other provisions.
Osburn also said that public outreach would need to be addressed, by way of mailings, utility bill inserts, social media, along with city council/town hall meetings so the community will know about the proposed fee and the usage of the funds from that fee.
There was much discussion on the commercial rate structure for the fee, including the need for a cap on high-trip-generating businesses, such as H-E-B and Walmart.
According to the ordinance draft, supermarkets would be classified as 9.56 SFE per 1,000 square feet. With that calculation alone and no cap, it would mean that H-E-B could be assessed a TUF of nearly $11,000.
“We’re not recommending $11,000 – that was just based on the total trip count, and we applied it for illustrated purposes. So you understand, that's not what we're recommending. We are recommending some type of band and trying to get your direction on that band,” said City Manager Ryan Haverlah.
The council and city administration also discussed the balance between generating enough revenue yet not discouraging commercial development. Potential exemptions were discussed, such as for state and federal facilities, and the rationale behind them.
Likewise, they discussed the idea of a new business exemption for a limited time to encourage business recruitment and retention.
The draft and more discussion of the proposed Transportation Utility Fee will be on the agenda for future meetings.