Classroom activity Grade 9 Social Studies & Civics
Merritt's Stormwater Fee: A Public Hearing Role-Play
Grade 9 role-play where students hold a simulated public hearing on a fictional town's stormwater fee, testify as stakeholders, and vote as a council.
Objectives
- Students will explain how a stormwater fee based on hard-surface area funds green infrastructure and shifts cost by property type.
- Students will represent a stakeholder's interest in formal testimony during a simulated public hearing.
- Students will weigh competing interests and cast a reasoned vote on a local funding proposal.
Vocabulary
- Stormwater
- Stormwater is rain or melted snow that flows off roofs, streets, and parking lots. In most towns it goes into storm drains and flows to a stream without being treated, carrying whatever it picked up.
- Impervious surface
- An impervious surface is any hard surface, like a road, roof, or parking lot, that rain cannot soak through. The more impervious surface a town has, the more stormwater rushes off it.
- Green infrastructure
- Green infrastructure uses soil and plants, like rain gardens, green roofs, and street trees, to soak up rainwater where it falls instead of piping it away. It copies the way nature handles rain.
Also: public hearing
Teacher overview
This is a whole-class role-play for 20 to 30 students that simulates a public hearing on a proposed stormwater fee. The setting is the fictional town of Merritt, where heavy rain runs off roofs and parking lots into Sanborn Creek, carrying pollution and causing floods. Students take assigned stakeholder roles, give formal testimony, and then vote as a town council. The role-play teaches how a local government uses a public hearing to decide a funding question, and how a fee charged by hard-surface area places different costs on different property owners.
Activity Directions
Set the scene (5 min). Explain the situation in the fictional town of Merritt. When it rains, water runs off hard surfaces such as roofs and pavement instead of soaking into the ground. That runoff floods low streets and carries oil and litter into Sanborn Creek. The town's stormwater manager has proposed a stormwater fee to pay for green infrastructure, such as rain gardens and porous pavement, that soaks up runoff before it reaches the creek. The proposed fee is $5 per month for every 2,500 square feet of hard surface a property has, so a property with more roof and pavement pays more.
Assign roles (5 min). Hand out one role card per student. Fill these roles first: one Council Chair and two other council members (they run the hearing and vote but do not testify), one Stormwater Manager, one homeowner, one owner of a large store called Depot Plaza, one representative of Glenmoor School, and one advocate for Sanborn Creek. Give any remaining students copies of the two general cards at the end of the handout, and group them in pairs or threes. Each group writes its testimony together and picks one speaker, which keeps the hearing short enough for every group to be heard.
Prepare testimony (10 min). Give each student two minutes to read their role card and write two or three sentences of testimony: who they are, whether they support or oppose the fee, and one reason grounded in their role card. Council members instead write two questions they will ask witnesses.
Hold the hearing (20 min). The Council Chair opens the hearing and calls witnesses one at a time. Each witness reads their testimony (about one minute), and council members may ask one question. Keep testimony moving with the gavel or bell so every witness is heard. The Stormwater Manager testifies first, and the advocate for Sanborn Creek testifies last.
Deliberate and vote (7 min). The three council members discuss what they heard for two minutes, out loud, in front of the class. Each then votes yes or no on the fee, or on an amended version they propose (for example, a lower rate or a discount for properties that build their own rain garden). Record the vote on the board.
Debrief (3 min). Close with two questions: "Which property in the hearing would pay the most under this fee, and why?" and "Whose interests did the fee protect, and whose did it cost the most?" Ask two or three students to answer before ending the activity.
Student Handout
Print and cut apart these role cards. Every figure below describes the fictional town of Merritt and is provided only for this role-play.
- Council Chair and council members (3 students): You run the hearing and vote at the end. You do not testify. Your job is to hear every side, ask fair questions, and decide what is best for the whole town. You may approve the fee, reject it, or change it before you vote.
- Stormwater Manager: You proposed the fee. You will testify that Sanborn Creek floods and carries pollution because runoff has nowhere to go, and that green infrastructure paid for by the fee would reduce both problems. You support the fee.
- Homeowner: Your house and driveway cover about 2,500 square feet of hard surface, so you would pay about $5 a month, or $60 a year. You worry about any new charge, but you also live on a street that floods. Decide how you will testify.
- Owner of Depot Plaza: Your store and its large parking lot cover about 100,000 square feet of hard surface, so you would pay about $200 a month, or $2,400 a year, far more than a homeowner. You argue the fee is unfair to businesses. You oppose the fee unless it is lowered.
- Glenmoor School representative: Your school's roof and paved lot cover about 25,000 square feet, so the school would pay about $600 a year from a tight budget, even though it earns no profit. You ask the council for a discount for schools. You are undecided.
- Advocate for Sanborn Creek: You speak for the creek's health and the neighborhoods that flood. You will testify that the pollution and flooding cost the town more over time than the fee would, and that large paved properties send the most runoff. You support the fee.
- Resident on a flooding street (copy as needed): Your home and driveway cover about 2,500 square feet of hard surface, so you would pay about $5 a month. Your street fills with water after heavy rain, and your basement has flooded twice. Decide whether the fee is worth it to you.
- Small business owner (copy as needed): Your shop and its small lot cover about 10,000 square feet of hard surface, so you would pay about $20 a month, or $240 a year. Money is tight, but flooded streets keep customers away. Decide how you will testify.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
Debrief question 1 (which property pays the most, and why): Depot Plaza pays the most, about $2,400 a year, because the fee is charged by hard-surface area and the store's building and parking lot cover far more pavement than a home or the school. The fee is designed so that properties sending the most runoff pay the largest share.
Debrief question 2 (whose interests the fee protected and cost): The fee protects the interests of the neighborhoods that flood and the health of Sanborn Creek, and it shifts the most cost onto owners of large paved properties such as Depot Plaza. A strong answer notes that the fee spreads the cost of a shared problem by tying each property's charge to how much runoff it creates.
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Give students who need it a testimony frame on their role card: "My name is ___ and I am a ___. I (support / oppose) the fee because ___." Pair a below-level student with a partner in the same role to prepare testimony together, and let council members choose their two questions from a short provided list.
Extension (above grade level)
Assign advanced students the council roles and require them to write a brief, one-paragraph decision explaining their vote, citing at least two witnesses by role and the interests they weighed. Alternatively, have a student design a credit that lowers a property's fee when it adds a rain garden, and defend how that credit changes the incentive for large property owners.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "stormwater," "impervious surface," and "public hearing" with a simple diagram showing rain running off a roof and a parking lot into a creek. Provide the testimony frame from the Support section to every English learner, and allow testimony to be delivered from written notes read aloud rather than spoken from memory.
Extensions
Have students find out whether their own town or county charges a stormwater fee, and if so, how it is calculated. Many real utilities base the charge on a property's impervious area, the same idea used in this role-play, and some offer credits for rain gardens or other green infrastructure that reduces runoff.