Denton residents and businesses would pay 10 percent more in drainage fees so the city could buy properties from flood-prone areas, under a proposal unveiled Wednesday.

The proposal, presented to the city’s Public Utilities Board, comes just over a month after heavy rains overwhelmed city drainage channels April 24, flooding an estimated 150 homes and businesses.

The fee increase would generate up to $375,000 a year, allowing the city to gradually buy homes and businesses in flood-sensitive zones from willing owners and move or demolish the structures, said Jim Coulter, the city’s water utilities director.

The City Council won’t discuss the proposal until Tuesday.

But critics immediately challenged the plan, and one member of the Public Utilities Board dismissed it as a “Band-Aid.”

“To simply increase the drainage fee and throw a Band-Aid at this major problem ... might make the council feel better, but I don’t think that’s helping the overall problem to any large degree,” board member Dick Smith said.

Homeowner David Newell, who lost most of his belongings in the April flood, also criticized the idea.

“Why buy houses and businesses from people?” Newell said. “Put the city tax dollars at work and improve the drainage.”

Residents and businesses pay the drainage fee as part of their monthly city utility bill. The residential fee ranges from 50 cents to $15.50, depending on how much runoff a property produces.

The fee generates nearly $4 million each year, and that revenue pays for improvements to the city’s drainage system, Coulter said.

But a fee increase would be needed to pay to remove large areas from the 100-year flood plain, where most of the April 24 flooding took place, he said.

The flood plain is the area affected by a 100-year flood, which has a 1 percent chance of happening in any given year.

Few of the city’s drainage channels were built to handle such a downpour, and improving all of them to that standard could cost more than $200 million, Coulter said.

To protect the downtown area alone, the cost could be more than $56 million, not accounting for inflation, he said.

But the city could buy the 150 homes and businesses that flooded April 24 for far less, Coulter said. A report presented to the Public Utilities Board estimates that cost at $12 million, or $80,000 per property.

Coulter said the city’s other options include:

n Continuing the current drainage program, which focuses on projects that keep roadways safe from flooding and open to emergency vehicles; and

n Encouraging property owners to buy flood insurance.

Board members did not vote on the proposal to buy properties with increased drainage fee revenue, but some members questioned its wisdom.

“The drainage fee was such a political and such a volatile issue that I’m not sure it should just be increased,” Smith said. “I think that drainage fee revenue needs to go to providing for issues of public safety with regard to the overall citizenry of Denton, which means roadway improvements.”

Board member Randy Robinson said the Federal Emergency Management Agency offers a flood insurance program for properties in flood-prone areas.

“To go beyond that, for the city to do that, I don’t know if that’s really our role,” he said.

Denton homeowner Glenn Davidson, whose home flooded April 24 when nearby Cooper Creek exceeded its banks, said he would sell his property to the city only if officials offered him what he says it’s worth.

But he doubted an offer would be that high, he said.

“They’re trying to pull the wool over the homeowners out there,” Davidson said. “If they address the issue at hand with the flooding problem [through infrastructure improvements], they won’t have to buy any houses.”

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com.

TO GO

What: Denton City Council work session

When: 4:30 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Denton City Hall, 215 E. McKinney St.