Storm Water

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The Storm Water Ordinance took effect May 5, 2014 and is yet another unfunded mandate handed down by the County who in turn were under a lot of pressure from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The idea behind this Ordinance is to keep the first one inch of rainfall on your property by means of installing Seepage Pits, Rain Gardens, etc.  Your project will be determined by how many s.f. of Impervious Coverage you are creating. By definition Impervious is the measure of the ability of a porous material to allow fluids to pass through it. Simply put if the rain runs off of it then it probably is Impervious. When you apply for your project the Zoning Officer will help you determine that. See the chart below for thresholds.

 IMPERVIOUS COVERAGE SF  PROJECT
1000 and under  EXEMPTION
 1001 to 4,999  SMALL PROJECT
 5,000 and over  LARGE PROJECT

Please keep in mind that this is accumulative; for example: If you build a 30 x 30 garage which is a total of 900 sf  you would fall under the exemption; later you are interested in installing a 10 x 12 shed which is 120 sf. Now you are over 1000 sf and you must apply for a Small Project. And so on for the Large Projects also. This accumulative effect starts with any projects permitted after May 5, 2014.