June 20th  |  Stormwater Management Focus Group

Key Takeaways

• The City will need to bring in additional funding and financial resources to help tackle the larger stormwater improvements, as well as a sustainable maintenance program. There is interest in attracting investors to help innovatively solve some of these challenges.
• The City should consider developing a stormwater utility that is paid based on property impact (i.e., if you mitigate your property’s impact, you pay less to the stormwater utility). This utility could fund the longer-term projects from a stormwater master plan for the City.
• Protection and restoration of natural resources is a priority for many to improve management of stormwater, including improving water quality in the Bay and bayous to provide better recreation and increase population of fish and shellfish, protection and
  restoration of wetlands, conversion of septic to sewer, cleanups to remove trash from water, and replanting trees and greenery.
• The City should consider, as part of a longer-term plan for stormwater management, the construction of centralized stormwater management ponds instead of individual ponds on each property.
• Forward thinking stormwater management will require changes and upgrades to the City’s building code and zoning ordinances.