Lawrence residents will pay 5.5% more for solid waste services each of the next three years, and stormwater fees are increasing for some residences as well.
Lawrence city commissioners approved solid waste rate increases of $1.25, $1.32 and $1.40 per month in 2026, 2027 and 2028, respectively, for single-family homes and multifamily dwellings. Downtown customers will see the highest rate increases, at 9.5% annually.
The city is changing the way it calculates impervious area for stormwater rates. It may mean less area is counted for some residences while more area is counted for others.
About 38% of residential customers will see their stormwater rates increase; the rest will stay about the same or decrease, according to Tuesday’s presentation to city commissioners. About two-thirds of nonresidential customers will see their stormwater bills increase.
Philip Kramer of Burns & McDonnell, a consulting firm who assisted city staff with the solid waste rate proposal, said the city’s rates were comparable to other cities’ for similar services.
“I think we’re doing our best we can,” Mayor Mike Dever said. “I know people are shocked by everything going up, and it just seems to be going everywhere, and I apologize for this. But I think we’re doing a good job with the costs and providing a great service and highest satisfaction rate we can get.”
Dever, Vice Mayor Brad Finkeldei and Commissioners Lisa Larsen and Amber Sellers voted 4-0 to approve both rate changes. Commissioner Bart Littlejohn was not present for the meeting.
Lawrence city commissioners also recently approved increases to water and wastewater rates in the range of 8.3% to 8.5% per year over the next three years for households. (Read more about that at this link.)
Holly Krebs, of the community group Coalition for Collaborative Governance, requested and received further data from city staff members, which she used to calculate the actual average total monthly costs that Lawrence residents will likely see on their bills by 2028.
Here are those numbers, broken down into a single-family household chart and a multifamily household chart.
New solid waste, stormwater, water and wastewater rates will be effective Jan. 1, 2026.
See the complete agenda item on solid waste rates at this link; see the agenda item on stormwater rates at this link.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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