City proposes plan to ease stormwater requirements for Chattanooga homebuilders

Stormwater bubbles out of a sewer grate off East 28th Street.
Stormwater bubbles out of a sewer grate off East 28th Street.

Chattanooga homebuilders who complain they have had to fight the current of city stormwater regulations could soon get some relief.

But not as soon or as much as they would like.

Chattanooga public works officials Monday outlined a number of changes to ease the requirements for new developers and builders to retain so much rainwater runoff in the South Chickamauga Creek and to mandate so much remediation and controls on properties dug up for new projects across the rest of the city.

"The existing rules were developed and adopted in late 2014 to meet state requirements, but we agreed to re-examine our regulations once they were implemented to see how they were working and that is what we have done," Chattanooga City Engineer Bill Payne said Monday during a meeting of the Chattanooga Stormwater Regulations Board.

Under a proposed plan submitted Monday, the runoff retention requirement in the South Chickamauga watershed would drop from 1.6 inches to 1 inch. Across the city, the new rules would also lessen requirements for controlling runoff from all disturbed areas to just controlling runoff from rooftops, paved surface and other impervious areas.

Terry Greene, executive director for the Home Builders Association of Greater Chattanooga, said the changes should help developers build more homes and limit some of the regulatory burdens on new developments, which a study by the National Association of Home Builders estimates adds nearly 25 percent to the cost of building a new home in Chattanooga.

The changes are designed to help developers and home builders do more building within the city limits while still keeping the city in conformity with its state stormwater permit.

"The current SOV (stay on volume) and method of calculation has significantly impacted new construction in the Chattanooga area," Greene told city regulators Monday. "The change (in the new city regulations) is more in line with state requirements.We still believe there is work to be done and want to encourage the Stormwater Regulations Board and the city of Chattanooga to continue to monitor these regulations."

The Stormwater Regulations Board, a 9-member advisory board that was reconstituted as part of the city's review of its stormwater runoff rules, must recommend any changes to the Chattanooga City Council. But at Monday's monthly meeting, the board didn't have a quorum and was unable to act.

As a result, any change is the city's stormwater rules could be pushed back to October. The Stormwater Regulations Board is now scheduled to vote on the recommended changes in the runoff rules in September and the City Council will likely take up those changes the following month.

Mike Price, a Chattanooga engineer who works with numerous developers affected by the stormwater rules, appealed to the stormwater board Monday to expedite its schedule so that stalled projects could move ahead.

"We have a number of projects that are in limbo at this point because developers moved ahead with their plans under the auspices that this plan would be adopted by now," Price said. "At this point, time is critical."

Greene said Chattanooga's housing inventory is not keeping pace with demand and said the local economy would benefit by more homes being built.

"The estimated one-year local economic impact of building 1,000 single-family homes in Chattanooga produces $192.2 million in local income, $26.5 million in taxes and other revenue for local governments, and adds 2,796 local jobs," he said.

During the Chattanooga mayoral campaign earlier this year, mayoral candidates Larry Grohn and Chris Long both criticized Mayor Andy Berke for what they said were excessively stringent stormwater runoff requirements that exceeded state regulations. Berke said those rules were being reviewed, but the changes have yet to be adopted.

Although critics of the rules claim they have unnecessarily held up new development, the city still issued more permits last year for new development over one acre in size. Overall, 688 permits were issued in fiscal 2016-2017, down 2 percent from the previous year, but complex projects over an acre in size were up by 57 percent from the previous year.

"The good news is that larger residential and commercial projects are up significantly," said Tony Kinder, site development manager in the city's Land Development Office.

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.

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