Mitigate the negative impacts of stormwater runoff and plan for a lasting potable water supply

Goal 19. Mitigate the negative impacts of stormwater runoff and plan for a lasting potable water supply

The Town should require that all new devel­op­ments include green infra­struc­ture (GI) fea­tures, which not only help to reduce flood­ing and off­set stormwa­ter load­ing on exist­ing drainage infra­struc­ture, but also help to facil­i­tate a nat­ur­al fil­tra­tion process and improve water qual­i­ty. The Town should cre­ate incen­tives (e.g. addi­tion­al den­si­ty, reduced park­ing) for retro­fitting exist­ing devel­op­ments to include GI fea­tures. Where appro­pri­ate, devel­op­ment on Town-owned prop­er­ty should include them as well. The Town should also require appli­cants to assess how their project could impact stormwa­ter runoff flow into near­by water cours­es, pipe net­works and prop­er­ties. These hydro­log­ic and hydraulic analy­ses should include water qual­i­ty (i.e. chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion) and quan­ti­ty (i.e. peak flows and vol­ume) pro­vi­sions. In order to plan for a last­ing and sus­tain­able water sup­ply, the Town should con­sid­er con­duct­ing a Town-wide or tar­get­ed area aquifer study to assess the quan­ti­ty and qual­i­ty of ground­wa­ter and should look to expand the Town’s pub­lic water sup­ply sys­tem where practicable.

Related Principle: Harmony with Nature