CHAMPAIGN — The city council this week will look at detailed options for a proposed storm water drainage fee, a new charge property owners may see in their sanitary district bills within the next couple years.

Council members will meet in study session to discuss the fee, which could range between about $45 and $63 annually for an average homeowner, on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Champaign City Building, 102 N. Neil St.

That charge could be much higher for owners of nonresidential properties. According to a plan city administrators will present to council, a storm water fee would be either flat or tiered for homeowners, but for others, it would be based on the amount of surface area that is impenetrable to groundwater.

That could put the annual charge in the thousands for big box stores with expansive roofs and parking lots, like the ones on North Prospect Avenue.

The goal is to pay for a roughly $80 million backlog of storm water drainage projects, for which funding has run dry. Council members will be asked to choose on a fee structure that would yield $2.2 million annually for storm water projects or a more aggressive fee that would add $3.2 million to the city's yearly revenue.

The more aggressive fee would, of course, be more expensive to property owners, according to city documents: an average homeowner might pay $5.24 monthly for the $3.2 million plan as opposed to $3.82 monthly for the cheaper storm water budget.

Officials began exploring the storm water utility fee last spring, not long after city council members issued $25 million in bonds to pay for storm water improvements. Many residents, who said flooding had been plaguing their homes for years, lauded that action.

But those bonds tapped the city's capacity to complete storm water improvement projects, even with a large number of residents left out of the plan. An $8.7 million project to spare their basements and streets of flood waters during heavy storms could happen within the next few years if the fee is approved, city officials say.