Adopt by ordinance one or more of the following stormwater infiltration/management strategies to reduce impervious surface:
Best Practice of this action
Rating Guideline
 |
At least one ordinance in place (MS4s must achieve a 2- or 3-star rating); sponsor/run an Adopt-a-Drain program. Report a "skinny street" project that decreases impervious street surface as a part of routine street reconstruction under BPA 11.2; report use of pervious/permeable pavement projects under BPA 17.5. |
 |
24' roads allowed. |
 |
Three or more ordinances in place. |
Resources
- North St. Paul, working with the Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District and Barr Engineering, identifies 22-foot streets with parking allowed on one side as workable in its 2011 Living Streets Plan. The National Association of City Transportation Officials Street Design Guide states: "Lane widths of 10 feet are appropriate in urban areas and have a positive impact on a street’s safety without impacting traffic operations. For designated truck or transit routes, one travel lane of 11 feet may be used in each direction. In select cases, narrower travel lanes (9–9.5 feet) can be effective as through lanes in conjunction with a turn lane." Cost-savings of 3.4% ($170,000) were projected for a 2015 Brooklyn Park street repaving and narrowing of 32' streets to 30' streets.
- The Urban Street Stormwater Guide (National Association of City Transportation Officials: 2017) provides cities with national best practices for sustainable stormwater management in the public right-of-way. See also the related Light Imprint approach to stormwater management and low-impact development that is rooted in the New Urbanism, which promotes traditional neighborhood design and is scaled for the different density zones of the urban-to-rural transect. A city-sponsored Adopt-a-Drain program may be one useful management effort.
- The Naturally Resilient Communities tool provides a set of solutions and case studies that use nature to address flooding.
- Stormwater and Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance in Minnesota's 2009 Model Ordinances for Sustainable Development.
Sublist
a. A narrower streets provision that permits construction of 24-foot roads for public, residential access and subcollector streets (with fewer than 400 average daily trips).
b. Use of pervious pavements for streets, trails, parking areas and sidewalks.
c. For sites less than one acre, retain the water quality volume of 1.1 inches of runoff from all impervious surfaces for new and fully-redeveloped construction sites.
d. For non-MS4 permittees, adopt an illicit discharge prohibition rule or ordinance and an erosion and sediment control ordinance. Sponsor a robust Adopt-a-Drain program
Order Number
3
Action Type
Finite