Item 9: Ordinance Concerning Stormwater Development Standards

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many residents in our area with well water. Washington state has soil best management practices in its stormwater code for just this purpose. The work of the RR/SC Transition Team has identified these same issues as critical to this area. The outcome of their work supports this request for preservation and enhancement of the open waterways and the listed contributing factors for the continued successful functioning of our natural stormwater system. Finally, we ask that the 3,000 square foot threshold for applicability of the proposed standards be reduced to 1,000 square feet. Portland (the city you are striving to model this plan after) has a 500 square foot threshold. Aiming to be only half as effective should take us a long way toward improving our water quality. Thank you for your consideration. Below I have included some examples of existing code language from other municipalities that closely parallel our goals for the Eugene stormwater code and will inform our work in creating language for Eugene's ordinance over the next two weeks. Sincerely, Kate Perle The Pierce County Ordinance from the Puget Sound area outlining many of the same concerns of RR/SC basin. (Pierce County ordinance--page 9) Low impact development goal shall be achieved through adherence to the following objectives... "retain or restore native soils and vegetation on 65% of a site. limit effective impervious area to no more than 1 0%. retain and incorporate natural site features that promote infiltration of storm water on a developed site. use of traditional conveyance and pond technologies to manage storm water quality and quantity should only be considered after all other LID techniques have been considered and used to the greatest extent possib'e Soils for Salmon.org outlines reasons to include soil protections instormwater ordinances and highlights Washington's soils BMPs.As land use intensifies, surface water runoff increases and evapotranspiration diminishes. This pattern is common in the urban environment and highlights the need for creative alternative~ that can help reduce water runoff and increase groundwater infiltration in the face of continued growth. It is widely recognized that urbanization brings increased peak storm flows and decreased summer flows to streams. This results from the increase in impervious surface and decrease in groundwater infiltration. It has been clearly demonstrated that minimizing development impact on native soils and forests, and restoring impacted soils with compost, can reduce peak storm flows and increase infiltration. Soil Best Management Practices Recently Washington State has included soil BMPs (Best Management Practices) in their stormwater manual. Snohomish County has funded creation of an simple and