photo by: Nick Krug

City of Lawrence solid waste division workers empty containers into the back of a trash truck in this file photo from December 2009.

The Lawrence City Commission unanimously approved increases to the city’s solid waste and stormwater utility rates for 2025 on Tuesday night, some of which were smaller than last year’s rate increases.

For the solid waste rates, Mike Lawless, the deputy director for Lawrence’s Municipal and Services Operations department, told the commission Tuesday there would be a 4% increase for residential rates, which comes out to about 88 cents more each month. That increase is lower than last year’s rate hike, when the monthly rate increased by $1.34 per month.

For most of the commercial side, the rates increased by 7.5% to 9.5% per month. Because the cost varies by container size, there is no specific dollar amount for most of the units. However, the rate for commercial carts was increased by 5%, or $1.62 per month.

Lawless said that the solid waste rate increases were lower than the department previously expected. Initially, he said the department thought the residential rates would increase by 6% and commercial rates would increase by 12%.

For the stormwater utility rate, the cost will go up by 60 cents in 2025 from $7.94 per month to $8.54 per month — a 7.5% increase that is the same as last year’s rate hike. That cost is calculated per Equivalent Residential Unit, which is equal to about 2,366 square feet of impervious surface. Most residential homes are somewhere between 1 and 1.25 ERUs, according to the MSO presentation.

The new rates will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.

The department has said the rate increases are necessary in order to fund stormwater and solid waste projects for next year. For the solid waste division, the biggest project is a new field operations campus that would consolidate multiple city departments under one roof. The first phase of construction is expected to start next year on the campus, which will be located at VenturePark in eastern Lawrence on the site of the former Farmland Industries fertilizer plant.

There are also big stormwater projects coming up, including one at 19th Street and Maple Lane and another one near downtown known as the Jayhawk Watershed Improvement project. The latter is estimated to cost $32 million, and it’s expected to start with work on Eighth and Tennessee streets in 2025.