COJ Contractor to Measure Duval by the Inch

[Charles Hunter]

From the Florida Times-Union: https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/local/2023/01/19/ai-planned-calculate-stormwater-fee-jacksonville-florida-artificial-intelligence/69800493007/

The city has hired a Canadian company, Ecopia AI, to use artificial intelligence to analyze aerial photos and map the buildings, trees, sidewalks, swimming pools and all the rest covering 363,272 parcels of Duval County real estate.

The system will break down Jacksonville’s photos into about 24 trillion pixels, each covering a little more than a square inch, then compare the images against more than 20 kinds of land coverings to measure how much of each parcel is covered by impervious material for which the city charges owners a stormwater utility fee.

The findings will be sent to Public Works Department employees who handle assessing the fee, which is tacked onto the yearly property tax bill as a separate charge unrelated to a home’s value.

...

The fee is based on how much land is covered with buildings and pavement — small impervious areas cost $30 per year, average areas (1,550 to 4,650 square feet) run $60 and bigger ones cost $90 — with separate prices for condos, apartments and mobile homes.

Interesting application. But this confuses me:

"[Steve] Long [COJ Public Works Director] said ..., “will ensure stormwater utility fee billing is as accurate and efficiently calculated as possible.”
...
City officials said there are no plans to use the new data to change the way the fee is billed or create more sophisticated assessments.

Those statements seem contradictory. Can someone explain it to a retired bureaucrat?

Also, explain this?

the service, which Ecopia touted* as 84 percent cheaper than the closest competitor

Why does the vendor "tout" their service as massively cheaper? Didn't the City take bids?

* tout - to make much of: promote, talk up

[jaxlongtimer]

The fee is based on how much land is covered with buildings and pavement — small impervious areas cost $30 per year, average areas (1,550 to 4,650 square feet) run $60 and bigger ones cost $90 — with separate prices for condos, apartments and mobile homes.

To be fair, the fee should weigh the impervious areas against those that are pervious.  For example, someone with 5,000 sf of impervious on a 100 acres likely holds all their impervious water on their property.  Someone with a 7,000 sf lot and 5,000 sf of impervious is likely draining water to the municipal storm water system.

[marcuscnelson]

Interesting application. But this confuses me:

"[Steve] Long [COJ Public Works Director] said ..., “will ensure stormwater utility fee billing is as accurate and efficiently calculated as possible.”
...
City officials said there are no plans to use the new data to change the way the fee is billed or create more sophisticated assessments.

Those statements seem contradictory. Can someone explain it to a retired bureaucrat?

It sounds like they're saying that people will be charged and pay the fee the same way they do now, and that the methodology of assessing the fee will be the same. The only difference will the accuracy of the data they are using to assess the fee.

Also, explain this?

the service, which Ecopia touted* as 84 percent cheaper than the closest competitor

Why does the vendor "tout" their service as massively cheaper? Didn't the City take bids?

* tout - to make much of: promote, talk up

I mean it sounds like they won whatever the bidding process was, so that seems to line up. They're promoting how much cheaper their service is and the city's selection of them seems to confirm that.

[Charles Hunter]

marcusnelson,

City officials said there are no plans to use the new data to change the way the fee is billed or create more sophisticated assessments.

you may be right about that quote. I read it as saying the current assessments will not change, which did not make a whole lot of sense if they are spending $100,000 on a more accurate system. Hypothetically, if the City had assumed 1,400 square feet of my property was impervious, and the new scan showed it to be 2,000 square feet, my stormwater assessment would go from $30 to $60. And, I guess it would apply the other way if the more accurate scan showed a smaller area).

I hope there are procedures to contest the assessment, in case the robot incorrectly assigned something as impervious. For example, if my driveway looks like concrete or brick, but is actually a pervious surface.