Reduce Stormwater Runoff in County, Group Urges
By Brandon Shulleeta, The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Va.
Aug. 6–A new report recommends ways for Albemarle County to reduce stormwater runoff caused by development.
The report was prepared by the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Rivanna Conservation Society and the University of Virginia School of Law’s Environmental Law and Conservation Clinic.
The Board of Supervisors will hear the recommendations at its meeting today. Those recommendations aim primarily at limiting stormwater runoff from new land development. Reducing parking lot sizes and giving businesses incentives to preserve trees are among the suggestions.
Stormwater runoff typically increases near developments and carries pollutants into waterways. For example, a 1-acre paved parking lot will produce roughly 27,000 gallons of runoff from one inch of rain, according to the 19-page report.
“Right now, there are over 20 stretches that qualify as impaired under state and federal law,” Morgan Butler, of the Southern Environmental Law Center, said of waterways flowing within Albemarle County or along itsborders.
“[The Department of Environmental Quality] recently analyzed seven of Albemarle’s impaired stretches of water, and the results show that stormwater runoff is a major contributor to the pollution problems in every single one,” the report states.
Some of the recommendations would create new restrictions for developers. Others would loosen them.
Board Chairman Kenneth C. Boyd said he supports environmental initiatives — except those that are overly expensive or burdensome. He will save judgment until hearing today’s presentation. However, he said some of the report’s recommendations “seem to be good ones, but others might be going a bit overboard.”
One of the recommendations would decrease the county’s minimum size requirement for parking lots. Another would require businesses to obtain a special-use permit for parking lots larger than the county’s maximum size standard.
One other recommendation would amend the county code to allow for perforated curbs that cause more runoff to flow into vegetation bordering sidewalks.
Though it’s not a formal recommendation, the report urges the county to seek a higher percentage of underground parking or structured parking in the county’s development areas. However, the group recognizes that developers often dismiss those options because of higher construction costs.
Supervisor Sally H. Thomas said she agrees with a recommendation for the county to close a state loophole that allows developers to postpone a deadline for planting vegetation on cleared terrain.
The report refers to two citizen groups’ survey of sediment at the bottom of Lake Hollymead — a few thousand feet downstream of the Hollymead Town Center: “The rate at which sediment has collected on the lakebed has increased dramatically in the past four to five years — a period that corresponds to intense construction activity at the Town Center and some other sites upstream of the lake.”
Butler said the report provides a mosaic of small, straightforward recommendations that could have a substantial positive effect.
A recommendation for businesses to make 20 percent of new parking lot spaces only for compact cars, for example, would allow parking lots to be smaller without reducing the number of parking spaces.
The board didn’t commission the report, Boyd said, but the analysis and recommendations are welcomed.
—–
To see more of The Daily Progress or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dailyprogress.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Va.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.