Low Impact Development LID Friendly Ordinances

1
Low Impact Development (LID) Friendly Ordinances

• Stephen Hofstetter
• Senior Environmental Planner
• Alachua County Environmental Protection
  Department
• FAC Water Policy Working Meeting
• November 2, 2007
• Orlando FL

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Presentation

• Review process and regulations that impede or
  support LID practices
• This includes looking at
• - Structure of development review process
• - Regulatory Roadblocks
• - Regulations that support LID
• - Summary discussion

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Development Plan Review Process

• Does your local development review process allow
  for LID developments or other innovative
  approaches?
• Example
• Alachua Countys Site Plan Review Process
  includes
• Three step process
• Pre-application meeting
• Preliminary Site Plan Review (Commission approval
  required if impacts proposed)
• Final Site Plan Review

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Pre-application Meeting

• This step is probably the most important step in
  the process. This is where the applicant can
• Receive guidance on process and submittal
  requirements,
• Discuss opportunity and incentives for LID
  practices,
• Discuss natural resource and drainage issues,
• No engineering required conceptual idea only
• And ITS FREE!

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Preliminary Application

• Identify all environmental concerns
• Show general building locations and roads
• Locate open space areas
• Receive guidance prior to proceeding with
  engineering plans and plat
• Threshold for BoCC process

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Final Application

• Final design
• All engineering completed
• Plat included
• Final management plans and open space designated
• Final stormwater plans and engineering submitted
  and reviewed

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Areas that often prevent LID practices

• Roadblocks
• Stormwater regulations
• Road requirements
• Zoning and Land Use regulations
• Parking and other design criteria
• Homeowner association requirements for
  landscaping

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Local Stormwater Regulations

• Roadblocks
• Requirement for conventional designs only
• No options for stormwater on private lots
• Requirements for engineering plans at initial
  review stages
• Lack of early coordination with Water Management
  District

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Stormwater Regulations

• Recommendations
• Allow innovative approaches (approvable by County
  Engineer)
• Allow stormwater systems to be located on lots
  (with drainage easements)
• Provide credit for innovative designs
• Allow LID to be included as open space
• Do not allow conventional basins in wetland
  buffers
• Communicate with WMD LID contact person

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Road Design Regulations

• Roadblocks
• Wide road width requirements
• Curb and gutter required
• Impervious options not allowed

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Road Design Regulations

• Recommendations
• Allow flexibility in road width and design
• Curb and gutter should be optional, not required
  (make it one of many options)
• Allow County Engineer to approve alternatives

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Other Code and Construction Design
Requirements

• Limit R-O-W size (45 or less on residential
  roads with low traffic counts)
• Look at parking ratios, shared parking and
  parking space sizes, mass transit, and overflow
  parking
• Sidewalk size (4) and drainage designs
• Rooftop runoff separation into yards?
• Break-up impervious areas
• Buffers should be contiguous, natural, and
  native
• Clearing and grading require clearing in phases
• Limit stream wetland crossings

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Zoning Regulations

• Remove lot size requirements - use gross density
  instead.
• Encourage (or require for large developments)
  clustering in rural areas

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Areas of code that should support LID

• Natural area protection (wetland upland)
• Open space requirements
• Clustering policies
• Require identification of natural resources first
• Water conservation requirements
• TDR programs
• Water quality protection
• (train staff)

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Strong Natural Resource Protection Policies
Alachua County Example
Areas identified as strategic ecosystems can
have up to 50 of uplands protected.
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Code References to LID-related Principles

• Open space Article 5, Chapter 407, Alachua
  County Unified Land Development Code (ULDC)
• Tree canopy Article 4, Ch. 407
• Habitat Protection Articles 3-5, Ch. 406
• Wetland buffers Article 6, Ch. 406
• Clustering Article 8, Ch. 407
• Water quality Ch. 344, Ch. 353
• Stormwater Article 9, Ch. 407
• Road design Article 8, Ch. 407
• Stormwater/open space Article 5, Ch. 407
• Native landscaping Article 4, Ch. 407
• Website http//growth-management.alachua.fl.us/l
  dr.php

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Open Space

• Designation of open space
• Must be contiguous usable, at least 20 of site
• Primary (selected first)
• - Conservation Areas
• - Natural areas
• Secondary
• - Community green space
• - Pedestrian trails/landscaped areas
• - Stormwater Management areas

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ExampleStormwater Areas Credited Toward Open
Space

• Provide greater biological diversity
• Provide enhanced stormwater treatment
• - provide staged elevations (i.e. forbays)
• - native trees in basin bottom (1 tree/35 on
  center)
• Irregular shorelines
• 12 pedestrian path
• No clearing, mowing or removal of native
  vegetation
• or
• Alternative landscape plan with greater or equal
  
• biological diversity and enhanced stormwater
• treatment
• (Article 5, Chapter 407, Alachua County ULDC)

Mowing limits
Example of alternative design
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In Summary

• Use gross density not lot size requirements
• Allow flexibility in road widths and designs
• Require identification of natural resources first
• Require or incentive-based clustering policies
• Have strong natural resource protection
  safeguards (e.g.. 75 wetland buffers, additional
  upland protection for sensitive lands)
• Allow and encourage alternative stormwater
  designs
• Require water quality protection throughout
  process
• Stormwater training program
• Work with Water Management District LID contact
  person

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Ways to incorporate LID into your local
regulations

• Here are three different approaches
• Create a new LID ordinance requiring LID under
  certain conditions, parameters, or locations
  (Example City of Olympia, WA)
• Create an alternative LID ordinance provides a
  choice to the developer to follow the existing
  code or LID ordinance. The LID ordinance should
  provide incentives to encourage the LID option
  (Examples Stafford County, VA Island County,
  WA).
• Incorporate LID principles throughout existing
  code and make changes to code that are necessary
  to support LID (Examples Alachua County FL, City
  of Issaquah, WA)

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Questions?
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Contact Information

• Stephen Hofstetter
• Senior Environmental Planner
• Alachua County Environmental Protection
  Department
• 201 SE 2nd Avenue, Suite 201
• Gainesville, FL 32606
• Emialshofstetter_at_alachuacounty.us
• [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• To find Alachua County Regulations
• go to weblinkhttp//growth-management.alachua.fl.
  us/ldr.php