Planning Commisson suggests 2 standards for stormwater
March 15, 2011
By Caleb Heeringa
With April showers likely falling outside, the City Council will spend the month deciding how best to protect Sammamish’s rivers and lakes as those showers pick up oil and other toxins and drain to the nearest waterway.
The city is required by the state and federal government to update its regulations governing stormwater – such as how much impervious surfaces can be on a given property, and which areas must treat their stormwater before routing it off their property.
The Planning Commission, tasked with advising the council on how to go about that, has suggested that Sammamish adopt two different sets of regulations. For projects that disturb more than an acre, King County’s more restrictive 2009 guidelines would be used. The more property-owner-friendly 1998 manual would be for projects smaller than an acre.
Sammamish would be following the lead of Issaquah and Kirkland in treating smaller lots differently than larger lots, though communities like Redmond and Mercer Island have adopted the stricter standards for all lots.
Community Development Director Kamuron Gurol said the largest difference between the two manuals was the newer manual’s requirement that a property owner assume “pre-Columbian” forested conditions on the property – essentially assuring that the stormwater flowing from their property during large rain events be the same as it was before a home or pavement were installed.
Unless a property owner can somehow prove that their property was clear of trees hundreds of years ago, they have to assume it was forest and make sure no additional storm water leaves the property.
Planning Commission Chairman Joe Lipinsky, speaking for the majority opinion of the commission, told the council that the commission felt that allowing a lower standard for smaller lots would give property owners more choices. He pointed out that the Washington State Department of Ecology has allowed other cities to keep two different standards, and Sammamish should take advantage.
“We’re balancing the cost to the environment to the cost to homeowners,” Lipinsky said. “If the cost to the environment were so terrible, why does Ecology allow us to exempt (lots under one acre)? If it was that bad, Ecology wouldn’t allow it.”
City stormwater engineer Eric LaFrance said in an interview that it’s important that the city’s regulations at least meet the standard set by neighboring jurisdictions, since it’s not out of the question that environmental or other groups could sue over the regulations.
“We don’t want to be the highest nail sticking up,” LaFrance said. “I want to make sure we’re at least doing what our neighbors are doing.”
Councilman Mark Cross said the lowest legal standard might not be appropriate for a place like Sammamish, which is densely populated around numerous environmentally sensitive streams, lakes, wetlands and steep slopes. He pointed to numerous developments in the city that were built decades ago without storm drainage systems. Stormwater in these developments either ends up heading into Lake Sammamish, likely without treatment, or pooling in neighboring lots, creating headaches for both the city and citizens.
Cross’s comments echo the dissenting opinion authored by commissioners Mahbubul Islam and Jan Klier, which stated that allowing the lower standard for properties under one acre (which make up about 92 percent of Sammamish properties) “serves mainly the economic interests of the homeowners and developers.”
Islam and Klier go on to point out that any relief to property owners would likely be temporary. Future expected changes to state and federal law would likely disallow using two different storm water manuals. While a property owner who paved a driveway under old standards would likely be grandfathered in, they would be forced to account for the added impervious surface and meet the newer standards should they do any other development in the property.
“Homeowners (and others) that find the new Surface Water Design Manual too strict should continue to take that issue up with the Department of Ecology and not attempt to work around it by exempting certain properties in a convoluted application of the manual,” Islam and Klier wrote. “Ultimately DOE sets the standard here; if that standard is unreasonable, that’s where the debate needs to happen.”
Reporter Caleb Heeringa can be reached at 392-6434. ext. 247, or cheeringa@isspress.com.
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Interesting discussion. Is an update available? Thank you. Marvin
Marvin-
The City Council is scheduled to discuss the city’s storm water manual at an April 12 study session and then deliberate and possible vote on the matter April 18 or May 3.
Caleb Heeringa, Sammamish Review reporter