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City
Council Report |
City Council Meeting: June 8, 2010
Agenda Item: 7-B
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Dean Kubani, Director of the Office of Sustainability
and the Environment
Subject: Introduction and First Reading of an Ordinance to update and modify Chapter
7.10, Urban Runoff Pollution Control.
Recommended
Action
Staff recommends
that City Council introduce for first reading an amended Urban Runoff Pollution
Control Ordinance that will apply to new development, construction sites and
existing parcels in the City.
Executive
Summary
The attached modified Urban Runoff Pollution
Control Ordinance (Ordinance) updates the existing ordinance. New water quality regulations from the Los
Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (Board) require modifications to
the Ordinance to maintain compliance with the Clean Water Act through the
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
The timely implementation of the modified Ordinance will ensure that Santa Monica remains on the leading edge of environmental protection measures and that the urban runoff environmental impacts of upcoming and future city-wide building and infrastructure improvement projects are significantly reduced. The modified Ordinance updates the requirements and exemptions for new and re-development projects to install post-construction structural devices to collect storm water for treatment, keeping this potential water pollution source out of the Santa Monica Bay (Bay). The modified Ordinance also requires construction sites to take similar measures, and requires that existing properties implement good housekeeping practices to protect the Bay. The objective of the Ordinance is to significantly reduce environmental impacts related to urban runoff and to promote a major shift towards sustainability in land use design and local water resource management. No financial impact results from this action.
Background
In August 1992, the City Council adopted the Santa Monica
Urban Runoff Pollution Control Ordinance to reduce detrimental water quality
impacts from urban runoff on the Bay.
Urban runoff is the single largest source of water pollution in U.S.
waters, and epidemiological studies have demonstrated higher risks of illness
when recreating near a flowing storm drain at beaches. The 1992 Ordinance required a runoff
reduction of 20% for all new development, implemented pollution control
standards for construction sites, and set forth various good housekeeping
requirements for existing parcels. Since the mid-1990s, implementation of this
Ordinance has led to reductions in the amount of runoff and contamination
entering the storm drain system and flowing into the Bay.
In January 2000, the Board adopted a numerical urban runoff
retention standard for several categories of new development. This standard mandates retention or treatment
of the volume of runoff produced from a 0.75 inch storm event and was more
stringent than the City's existing requirement at that time, e.g. a 20 percent
overall reduction in runoff. The Board also adopted limits to runoff pollution
from loading docks, material storage areas, refuse enclosures,
vehicle/equipment wash areas and fueling areas. The City, along with all other
jurisdictions in the region, was required to have an enabling ordinance incorporating
the new Board standards in effect before February, 2001. The City Council approved a revised ordinance
on November
14, 2000,
which included the new runoff pollution mitigation standards.
Discussion
Urban Runoff Pollution Ordinance
The proposed revisions to the City’s Ordinance incorporate
necessary changes based upon nine years of City experience and lessons learned in
implementing the Ordinance, and upon pending Board requirements of the new
NPDES permit for Los Angeles County. The
proposed changes to the Ordinance will bring the City into compliance with the
pending Los Angeles County permit.
Moreover, the changes fall within the objectives of the City’s Watershed
Management Plan. The changes will
strengthen the Ordinance to further reduce the volume and toxicity of urban
runoff entering the Bay from Santa Monica, as well as promote onsite runoff
retention and use for non-potable purposes. The proposed Ordinance achieves
these objectives through the implementation of requirements in three principal
areas:
1.
Good
Housekeeping Requirements: Expansion and strengthening of pollution
control measures that apply to all existing property owners and cover
activities such as the storage of hazardous materials and sweeping of surface
parking lots;
2.
Construction
Site Requirements: Expansion and strengthening of pollution
control and pollution prevention measures that apply to all construction sites
and cover activities such as storage of excavated soil and construction
materials, and washing of construction vehicles and equipment; and
3.
Post-Construction
Best Management Practices (BMPs) Requirements: This section of the Ordinance
includes the most significant changes in five major areas as described below.
A.
The
definitions section has been modified to reflect changes in water quality
standards that are regulated by the Board.
New terms were added and existing ones removed or updated to be
consistent with the anticipated new NPDES permit. New terms were added to clarify the types of
projects that fall within the thresholds to undertake post-construction BMPs,
such as Accessory Building and Substantial Remodel. New terms were also added to clarify the in
lieu fee, explained below in sub-section C, and to more clearly identify the
project mitigation volume.
B.
The
thresholds that trigger the installation of post-construction BMPs for New
Development and Re-development to mitigation runoff were clarified and updated
in a number of areas. Thresholds that
were subjective and led to inconsistencies in application, such as the value of
a project, were removed; thresholds based on project square footage were better
defined; and new thresholds that are easier to apply, and are more consistent,
precise and objective were included.
C.
The
third area of major change modifies the in lieu fee. In the current Ordinance, this fee is only
available when site-specific physical restrictions prevent inclusion of a BMP
and the Ordinance does not establish a clear basis for establishing the fee
amount. The modified version makes the
one-time fee an equal option to a post-construction BMP, and the rate is
comparable to construction costs of the BMPs.
The rate is based upon the actual construction costs for City projects,
which are stored in the City’s electronic runoff database. The calculation involves dividing the actual
cost to install a BMP by the amount of required runoff mitigation volume (cubic
feet converted to gallons). In lieu fees
are deposited in the City’s Stormwater Fund and fund installation of
post-construction BMPs as per the City’s Watershed Management Plan and the
Five-Year Low Impact Development Plan.
Making the in lieu fee an equal option to a post-construction BMP will
allow the City to fund construction of centralized BMPs in the area where the
fees originated to treat a variety of pollutants from private properties and
the public transportation infrastructure.
City staff believes that this strategy will be effective and
comprehensive in reaching water quality standards.
D.
The
enforcement section of the Ordinance was updated to reflect recent changes in
and to be consistent with the City’s enforcement guidelines. It has also been modified to enable the City
to bring existing incompliant properties into compliance.
E.
The
modified Ordinance requires that City street resurfacing projects and new CIP
transportation grid projects incorporate post-construction BMPs when the
location, cost-benefit, and timing make budgetary sense. This strategy is included in the 5-Year Low
Impact Development Plan adopted by Council on January 26, 2010, as a way to
address runoff from streets, alleys and public right-of-ways.
The runoff reduction requirement for new development in the
proposed Ordinance is stated in terms of a numerical performance measure,
either volumetric or flow-based to provide designers/developers considerable
latitude in regard to which BMPs or treatment controls they install to achieve
compliance. Each development site has different physical features and a
different set of runoff mitigation design opportunities. Because of these site specific features, the
revised Ordinance identifies the use of Low Impact Development (LID) design as
the priority strategy for compliance.
LID is a comprehensive stormwater management, land planning and
engineering design approach with a goal of conservation and the use of onsite
natural features, and of maintaining and enhancing the pre-development
hydrologic regime of urban and developing watersheds, including individual
parcels, through the use of BMPs. LID
offers an assortment of low-cost, sustainable opportunities to reduce runoff
pollution but also harvest rain water for non-potable uses in place of limited
potable water resources.
Commission
Action
The
Task Force on the Environment met on May 17 to consider the Urban Runoff
ordinance. A verbal presentation was
given by staff, but a written copy of the final ordinance was not provided to
the Task Force based on the recommendation of the City Attorney’s Office. After its discussion, the Task Force made the
following two motions:
Motion 1:
The Santa Monica Task Force on the
Environment strongly disagrees with the recommendation by the Santa Monica City
Attorney’s Office to avoid bringing the final version of the Urban Runoff
Ordinance to the Task Force for review and comment. The Task force has been
reviewing and commenting on previous drafts of this ordinance and cannot advise
Council on the final content without seeing the final version of the
ordinance proposed to Council.
Motion 2:
The Santa Monica Task Force on the
Environment strongly recommends Council delay voting on the revisions to the
Urban Runoff Ordinance until such time as the Task Force has had a chance to
review and comment on the document. If the item must be heard at the June
8th Council meeting, the Task Force hereby creates a subcommittee to review and
comment on the ordinance as it becomes available.
Financial
Impacts & Budget Actions
No
financial impact results from this action.
Prepared by: Neal Shapiro, Watershed Management
Program Coordinator
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Approved: |
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Forwarded
to Council: |
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Dean Kubani Director, Office of Sustainability and the
Environment |
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Rod Gould City
Manager |