×
Technical guides

Enhanced Model Stormwater Ordinance

Enhanced Model Stormwater Ordinance for Municipalities

New Jersey Future has put together an Enhanced Model Stormwater Ordinance as a key tool to implementing public and private green infrastructure, a group of practices that mimic the natural water cycle to capture rainwater where it falls. Municipal stormwater ordinances establish requirements for how development projects will manage stormwater. Municipalities in New Jersey already use stormwater ordinances (also called stormwater control ordinances) to control runoff, improve water quality, and maintain groundwater levels. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) requires every municipality to adopt a stormwater ordinance and update it as the state’s Stormwater Management Rules are amended.

With the state’s most recent amendments (effective March 2) now requiring stormwater to be managed with green infrastructure (GI), each municipality can decide how best to bring the benefits of GI to their communities with an enhanced ordinance that is stronger than the state’s minimum requirements. To help municipalities make choices about how to adopt a stronger stormwater ordinance, New Jersey Future developed a new tool, the Enhanced Model Stormwater Ordinance for Municipalities. It compares and recommends several options for improvements to the minimum requirements in NJDEP’s example stormwater ordinance. While NJDEP’s requirements represent a paradigm shift in stormwater management, municipalities that want to get ahead of flooding and climate change, improve water quality in local waterways, and encourage developers to use more GI in their projects should consider going further. Municipalities can use their stormwater ordinance to partner with developers of both public and private projects to build GI, multiplying its benefits.

Click the link below to access the Enhanced Model Stormwater Ordinance.

logo

Tap into Resilience

A WaterNow Alliance Initiative

Have a project that needs support? Our team of experts is here to help

Ask an expert

Whether you have a project that needs support or are just dipping your toe in, our team of experts is here to help.

Ask an expert