Coastal Community Policy Toolkit
Nonstructural Options for Climate Adaptation and Resilience
This toolkit is meant to be used as a resource for coastal communities, including government leaders, consultants, planners, and community members who are interested in understanding their coastal resilience policy and planning options according to which environmental issues they face.
How to Use the Toolkit
By solely including non-structural tools, the toolkit remains a focused resource that brings awareness to more than 100 policy options. The toolkit is categorized according to the related issue/focus area that the policy corresponds with. While certain policies focus on coastal resilience, many of them are applicable to inland communities as well.
The related issue/focus areas include:
Resources by Category
Best Practices
Establish mutual aid agreements and emergency contracts for support during extreme events
Create a disaster cost recovery plan
Create emergency response/contingency plans
Create a Post-Disaster Land Use Change Provision
Create a Pre-Event Recovery Ordinance
Adopt a Post-Disaster Capital Improvements Provision
Establish a District of Critical Planning Concern (DCPC)
Establish mutual aid agreements and emergency contracts for support during extreme events.
To enable continuation of service during extreme events from outside jurisdictional boundaries, to manage and support post-disaster recovery, and for stand-by equipment (generators, pumps, etc.) to ensure short-term restoration of services. These agreements can be between all levels of government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community partners, and the private sector. There are various types of mutual aid agreements. Jurisdictions may need to consider resources and capabilities across the whole community and ensure compliance with pertinent laws and ordinances when choosing which agreement to make with each different entity. Examples of agreements include: Local Automatic Mutual Aid; Local Mutual Aid; Regional, Intrastate, or Statewide Mutual Aid; Interstate Mutual Aid – After Declaration; Interstate Mutual Aid – Prior to or Without a Declaration. The United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc. (USET) Tribal Emergency Mutual Aid Compact (TEMAC) is an example of this agreement expressly for tribes.
Create a disaster cost recovery plan.
Have a plan in place for recovery post-disaster, both in return to operations as well as cost recovery for costs incurred related to disaster preparation, service restoration and system recovery (replaces or repairs for damaged infrastructure). As part of the plan, identify insurance mechanisms and financial instruments to protect against financial losses associated with infrastructure losses.
Create emergency response/contingency plans.
Ensure that emergency response plans deal with flooding and include emergency measures, triggers, time to implement, and public notifications and communication.
Create a Post-Disaster Land Use Change Provision.
Provision related to changing land use regulations following a hazard event; may include redefining allowable land uses after a hazard event, such as implementing a development moratorium provision.
Create a Pre-Event Recovery Ordinance.
Prepared and adopted before disaster strikes. It is useful in expediting recovery, together with emergency powers protecting public health and safety and fostering desired beneficial long-term recovery outcomes.
Adopt a Post-Disaster Capital Improvements Provision.
Related to adjusting capital improvements to public facilities following a hazard event, such as relocating city infrastructure
Establish a District of Critical Planning Concern (DCPC).
A DCPC is a planning and regulatory tool that allows for the designation of a district for a defined purpose. It also allows time, through a limited moratorium, to conduct planning studies and adopt regulations to address a specific problem.
Development
Conduct a safe growth audit
Establish annexation policies that include climate change projections
Create a post-disaster redevelopment plan/ordinance
Incorporate hazard review and hazard mitigation as a criteria in land suitability analyses/site review processes for land development
Provision limiting capacity of public facilities in hazard areas to cap amount of development
Require Hazard Disclosures for Property Transactions
Create a unified development ordinance (UDO)
Create an Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance
Map existing/planned critical infrastructure around marsh migration
Implement a rolling easement
Modify a steep-slope ordinance
Incorporate fiscal impact analysis into development review and climate change costs
Use Development and/or Redevelopment Incentives
Use tax abatement for development that incorporates mitigation methods
Use Impact / Special Study / Protection Fees for development in hazardous areas
Create Environmental impact bonds (EIBs)
Provide discounted application fees/discounted or waived maintenance bonding requirements for nature-based solutions
Require a land tax on critical/pristine land
Institute property tax relief or freeze for properties that maintain rural character in the face of development pressure
Create cost-share programs to incentivize the use of living shorelines
Create a Conservation Overlay Zoning District
Create an Open Space or Easement Requirement/Purchase Provision
Develop fee simple acquisitions
Use and expand taxpayer-funded conservation programs
Incorporate tax increment financing (TIF) districts in receiving areas to help services needed in preserved natural areas
Purchase key sites and hold them in a land bank for future development
Buy working land conservation easements
Designate “transition zones”
Create a Marsh Migration Areas Zoning Overlay District
Remove development via land purchase to provide flood storage, etc.
Create a Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO)
Create an upland resilience overlay (URO)
Create a no-adverse-impact certification
Create a Fill Ordinance
Establish a Technical Review Committee (TRC)
Include considerations of sea level rise in Zoning and Overlay districts
Implement Cluster Development
Use Conditional development requirements
Use tax and development incentives to direct growth away from areas vulnerable to SLR
Use tax incentives for donation of undevelopable/less developable lands due to sea level rise
Create freeboard requirements of 2-3 ft above base flood elevation (BFE)
Create a Fill Ordinance
Develop a Buyouts Program
Use Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to preserve sensitive areas
Use Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program to preserve sensitive areas
Create a Wetland Protection Ordinance / Critical Line and Wetland Buffer Ordinance
Adopt wetland development standards into the city municipal development code
Create a Stormwater Retention Credit (SRC) Trading program
Use Wetland mitigation banking
Require bulk regulations to help manage stormwater
Create a Resilience Quotient for Development
Create a Stormwater Utility Fee Incentive
Create an Estuarine Shoreline Management Plan
Identify salt marsh migration potential land areas and incorporate into planning
Create an Open Space and Parks Master Plan
Create a Floodplain Management Plan
Create rebuilding standards/guidance on areas vulnerable to sea level rise
Require the placement of new critical facilities outside of the 500-year floodplain
Revise infrastructure design standards for flooding issues
Create criteria to determine which neighborhoods should be connected to a centralized wastewater system
Create a Community Wetland Review Board
Conduct a safe growth audit.
To evaluate the extent to which a jurisdiction is growing safely relative to the natural hazards it faces.
Establish annexation policies that include climate change projections.
Create a post-disaster redevelopment plan/ordinance.
Incorporate hazard review and hazard mitigation as a criteria in land suitability analyses/site review processes for land development.
Provision limiting capacity of public facilities in hazard areas to cap amount of development.
Require hazard disclosures for property transactions.
Require real estate professionals, developers, and prospective property buyers to disclose and/or be made aware of local coastal hazards pertaining to property during the property transaction process, including flooding. For flooding for example, real estate transactions for properties located in the 100-year floodplain, or at or below 10ft above sea level, would be required to incorporate a disclosure statement to be signed by the buyer. The intent would be to provide an additional educational tool to inform property buyers of the real-life risks of living in the flood-prone area.
Create a unified development ordinance (UDO).
A UDO combines all ordinances with options to build resilience by limiting density or intense uses in known high-hazard areas and can encourage use of nature-based solutions.
Create an erosion and sediment control ordinance.
To strengthen controls on development within flood-prone and wetland areas as well as safeguard water resources by preventing soil erosion due to construction activities.
Map existing/planned critical infrastructure around marsh migration.
To determine opportunities for retrofits and relocation that will allow for ongoing and future marsh migration.
Implement a rolling easement.
As a rolling easement “rolls” upland as sea levels rise & coastal erosion causes coastline encroachment and newly created property lines, etc., they prohibit development, and can help facilitate the migration of buffers, dunes, living shorelines & wetlands to preserve their value for sea level rise adaptation, flood mitigation, and shoreline protection.
Modify a steep-slope ordinance.
Modify a steep-slope ordinance to account for slopes exposed to increased moisture due to changes in precipitation and sea level rise. A steep slope is a zoning regulation designed to limit disturbance of or development on steep slopes. The purpose of the limitation is to prevent erosion, reduce the risk of dangerous landslides, and preserve scenic hillsides.
Incorporate fiscal impact analysis into development review and climate change costs.
Making sure it includes costs related to climate change impacts so that these climate risk costs can be integrated into the municipality’s budget.
Use Development and/or Redevelopment Incentives.
Communities can update their land use, zoning, or other local regulations to provide incentives for using nature-based solutions. Zoning incentives can allow a greater height, density, or intensity of development if a developer uses nature-based approaches.
Use tax abatement for development that incorporates mitigation methods.
Tax breaks offered to property owners and developers who use mitigation methods for new development. Tax break examples could include reducing taxes on development exactions, land gains taxation, and special assessment districts.
Use Impact / Special Study / Protection Fees for development in hazardous areas.
Requiring impact fees, special study fees, or protection fees for development in hazardous areas could cover the costs of structural protection. For example, require new developments to pay an impact fee that would finance wastewater system construction costs. As part of this strategy, communities could consider requiring long-term financial maintenance plans for any new decentralized system when reviewing plans for approval.
Create Environmental impact bonds (EIBs).
EIBs can help communities obtain upfront capital for hard-to-finance environmental projects. These bonds link project performance incentives to desired environmental outcomes. In practice, most EIBs function like traditional bonds, with a fixed interest rate and term. Unlike normal bonds, they offer investors a “performance payment” if projects perform better than expected.
Provide discounted application fees/discounted or waived maintenance bonding requirements for nature-based solutions.
Incentives for adopting nature-based solutions approaches to be used in the development application and review period. This could include waving permit fees for developments that meet specific nature-based solutions thresholds. For redevelopment, communities can also give a one-time tax credit for using nature-based approaches that benefit the public.
Require a land tax on critical/pristine land.
Require any development on pristine land to pay a premium land tax. These funds could then be used to support the repair or replacement of failing systems as well as the restoration of critical areas.
Institute property tax relief or freeze for properties that maintain rural character in the face of development pressure.
To ensure that surrounding development does not increase land valuation to a point where property owners feel compelled to sell.
Create cost-share programs to incentivize the use of living shorelines.
Incentivize the use of living shorelines to waterfront property owners and marine contractors and the use of riparian buffers and development setbacks.
Create a Conservation Overlay Zoning District.
To help protect sensitive areas.
Create an Open Space or Easement Requirement/Purchase Provision.
Provision encouraging open space purchase by the community or open space easements as an element of development approval.
Develop fee simple acquisitions.
Work with communities and landowners to develop fee simple acquisitions, which is where land trusts own and manage land that is donated or sold, in order to expand and manage conservation areas. This can be done especially in areas where future marsh migration is projected.
Use and expand taxpayer-funded conservation programs.
To protect land, especially for future marsh migration.
Incorporate tax increment financing (TIF) districts in receiving areas to help services needed in preserved natural areas.
Purchase key sites and hold them in a land bank for future development.
Develop partnerships with community development corporations, housing authorities (especially those with bonding power), nonprofit development companies, and others to raise funds needed to acquire desired sites.
Buy working land conservation easements.
To prevent urbanization of these properties and to preserve land-use patterns that in the future can potentially transition to salt marshes.
Designate “transition zones”.
Designate and protect “transition zones” near tidal marshes.
Create a Marsh Migration Areas Zoning Overlay District.
Designate areas that can support future marsh migration as resource protection through shoreland zoning.
Remove development via land purchase to provide flood storage, etc.
Removing development from an existing location by land purchase or land donation, flood insurance buy-out programs, or other means. Undevelopment of a site includes removing buildings from flood hazard areas, areas of increased erosion rates, or threatened by sea level rise, in order to provide the beneficial functions of flood storage capacity, habitat, buffers allowing for the natural migration of coastal resources, and recreational access.
Create a Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO).
This ordinance regulates most activities in “critical areas” and buffers around these areas and requires a permit from the city for regulated activities to occur. Critical areas include wetlands, critical aquifer recharge areas, frequently flooded areas, geologically hazardous areas, fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas (including streams), and designated critical areas of local significance. Required wetland buffer widths are provided in the CAO and range from 25 feet to 200 feet; the buffer width for a given wetland is determined based on the wetland category, adjacent land use, and the functions provided by the wetland.
Create an upland resilience overlay (URO).
Encourages development in higher areas, with the goal of transforming them into “walkable, bikeable, transit-rich neighborhoods.” Property owners in the URO can forgo some resilience requirements in these areas, which have less flood risk—if they agree to relinquish development rights in areas vulnerable to flooding in the coastal resilience overlay so these areas can be used for water retention or flood protection.
Create a no-adverse-impact certification.
Designed to ensure that new construction or structural improvements in the floodplain will not exacerbate upstream or downstream flooding. The regulation would help lower flood insurance premiums for residents downstream.
Create a Fill Ordinance.
Limits the import of large quantities of fill dirt to build the land up out of the floodplain to reduce the amount of quick and destructuve development. Encourages responsible and resilient development in the floodplain by siting infrastructure on the highest portion of parcels and/or utilizing alternative methods of raising infrastructure out of the floodplain, like stilts.
Establish a Technical Review Committee (TRC).
To ensure all development is compliant with local codes and guidelines and to integrate sea level rise into discussions when reviewing development plans.
Include considerations of sea level rise in Zoning and Overlay districts.
The city and county could revise existing conservation resource protection areas and consider expanding them to include consideration of SLR. This strategy could be implemented as a regulatory requirement in the zoning ordinance or as an incentive, through reduced fees, tax credits, streamlined permitting, density bonuses, or financial incentives, in order to limit development in areas vulnerable to SLR. An example of revising and strengthening zoning and overlay districts includes expanding the regulations in place for Velocity Zones (V Zones) to Coastal A Zones. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) regulations require certain design and construction practices in V Zones, such as ensuring that buildings constructed in V Zones are anchored to resist wind and water loads acting simultaneously. These practices are reccomended, but not required, for Coastal A Zones, so making these regulations a requirement or incentivizing them for Coastal A Zones would be helpful.
Implement Cluster Development.
Encourage the concentration of new development in upland areas away from future SLR inundation areas. Incentives could include streamlined permitting, relaxed setback, lot size requirements, and height or density bonuses. When implementing cluster development, important things to keep in mind include: setting development caps / population limits; maintaining public infrastructure for cluster development intensity away from hazard areas; and prohibit cluster development in viable agricultural and sensitive natural areas.
Use Conditional development requirements.
Special conditions administered by the state on development that occurs in areas identified as vulnerable to future SLR, including requirements for coastal buffers, impact fees to cover emergency response during disasters, or for the construction of flood protection structures.
Use tax and development incentives to direct growth away from areas vulnerable to SLR.
Encourage new development to occur outside of areas identified as vulnerable to SLR using tax and development incentives. Incentives could include tax credits, streamlined permitting for upland development, or financial incentives for infill or redevelopment in currently developed upland areas.
Use tax incentives for donation of undevelopable/less developable lands due to sea level rise.
Create freeboard requirements of 2-3 ft above base flood elevation (BFE).
Require a structure’s lowest floor to be placed 2-3 feet (or at least 1ft at a minimum) above the 100-year flood level and incorporate this into a floodplain management ordinance. Having freeboard provisions provides a margin of safety for new development in poorly mapped areas.
Create a Fill Ordinance.
Limits the import of large quantities of fill dirt to build the land up out of the floodplain to reduce the amount of quick and destructive development. Encourages responsible and resilient development in the floodplain by siting infrastructure on the highest portion of parcels and/or utilizing alternative methods of raising infrastructure out of the floodplain, like stilts.
Develop a Buyouts Program.
Develop an ongoing buyouts program that would re-purpose properties at high-risk and use them to support water management, drainage, and absorption.
Use Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to preserve sensitive areas.
Use transfer of development (TDR) rights (otherwsie known as TDR credits or density credits) to allow developers to increase densities on, for example, parcels with low flood risk in return for keeping flood-prone areas vacant.
Use Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program to preserve sensitive areas.
Fund a PDR program annually out of general fund or other designated revenues. Work with water and drainage districts to use utility and other available fees or taxes for targeted acquisitions (e.g., buying riparian habitat around a lake to protect water quality). Purchase land identified as sensitive natural areas in the comprehensive plan.
Create a Wetland Protection Ordinance / Critical Line and Wetland Buffer Ordinance.
Ordinance to protect noncontiguous wetlands that are not covered by state regulations and increase protection of remaining contiguous wetlands through requiring a a wetland use permit to conduct activities within a wetland such as: depositing or permitting the placement of fill material; grading of the surface profile of the land; dredging, removing, or permitting the removal of soil, vegetation, or minerals; draining any water into or from a wetland; and constructing, operating, or maintaining any use or development.
Establish regulations that enforce zones of vegetation between potentially polluting areas and adjacent designated critical areas in the coastal zone in order to protect water quality and wildlife habitat. Include both preferred and minimum buffer widths, such as a 100-foot buffer from the edge of tidal waters/wetlands. Town staff work with applicants to strive for larger buffers but have the flexibility to allow for smaller buffers based on project-specific information such as lot size or the amount of impervious cover on the site.
Adopt wetland development standards into the city municipal development code.
Implement Wetland and Riparian Corridor Development Standards within the Development Code. These standards state that projects impacting land in or within 25 feet of wetlands must obtain approvals, and that no impacts to “locally significant wetlands” are allowed.
Create a Stormwater Retention Credit (SRC) Trading program.
Banking or credit trading programs can help developers meet onsite stormwater retention requirements when nature-based solutions are not feasible onsite. They create a mechanism for developers to pay the community to build nature-based solutions off site. This concept is like that of wetland mitigation banking.
Use wetland mitigation banking.
Wetland mitigation banking is a system of credits and debits devised to ensure that ecological loss, especially loss to wetlands and streams resulting from various development works, is compensated by the preservation and restoration of wetlands, natural habitats, and streams in other areas so that there is no net loss to the environment. Wetland mitigation banking is commonly used to compensate for wetland impacts from development, but it is also used for impacts from agriculture.
Require bulk regulations to help manage stormwater.
Bulk regulations include minimum building setbacks, minimum open space requirements/lot coverage maximums, and floor area ratio requirements. Each of these limits the amount of developed area on a given property and, when looked at cumulatively across an entire community, can help to manage stormwater before it becomes a flooding issue.
Create a Resilience Quotient for Development.
Developers are encouraged to meet a resilience quotient,which is a threshold of meeting three standards set for flood risk reduction, stormwater management, and energy resilience. Each new development and redevelopment project (both residential and nonresidential) must achieve a minimum threshold of points that are awarded based on whether the project meets standards to boost its resilience against flooding and other threats. The resilience quotient varies by the type of development and ensures that developers think holistically about site design. Norfolk, VA, is an example of a jurisdiction with a zoning ordinance that requires all new development to meet a resilience quotient.
Create a Stormwater Utility Fee Incentive.
A stormwater utility fee program can offer incentives for property owners to incorporate nature-based solutions. For example, a program that charges users based on their property’s impervious area could offer discounts when property owners “disconnect” some of their impervious area from the storm sewer system by adding nature-based solutions. Other incentives may be offered for creating more buildings with green roofs and other retention or infiltration systems, or for rainwater harvesting.
Create an Estuarine Shoreline Management Plan.
Comprehensively addresses the management of the Town’s estuarine shoreline by addressing erosion and by balancing land use, coastal and climate hazards, ecosystem health, public health, and recreational opportunities.
Identify salt marsh migration potential land areas and incorporate into planning.
Identify site-specific areas with salt marsh migration potential and where migration could be facilitated through easements or other land protection strategies and incorporate this into planning and land preservation processes.
Create an Open Space and Parks Master Plan.
Develop a plan that would increase the amount of open space and parks in Town. In addition to enhancing resilience to flooding and providing critical habitat for threatened and endangered species, parks and open space enhance the community’s overall health and well being.
Create a Floodplain Management Plan
Plan that ensures open space is designed in floodplains. (This plan is an accredited activity under the Community Rating System)
Create rebuilding standards/guidance on areas vulnerable to sea level rise.
Standards or guidance to inform property owners on where, when, and how structures that have been destroyed are rebuilt. This strategy could be expanded to include redevelopment of existing structures that have not been destroyed.
Require the placement of new critical facilities outside of the 500-year floodplain.
Critical facilities include hospitals, police and fire stations, schools, power-related facilities, and treatment facilities.
Revise infrastructure design standards for flooding issues.
Monitor and review design standards every 5 to 10 years as assets are replaced (elevation, flood-proofing, removing of aerial lines from service, decommissioning pump stations, etc.).
Create criteria to determine which neighborhoods should be connected to a centralized wastewater system.
Create indicators/criteria to determine when a neighborhood with failing septic systems might be a good candidate to connect to a centralized system and when it should consider different alternatives. For example, areas planned for additional growth with moderate densities might be better candidates for centralized systems. Areas not planned for growth and with very low densities, such as 1 unit per 20 or more acres, might be better suited to septic replacement.
Create a Community Wetland Review Board.
Comprised of community members who are appointed by a Township Board and involved in the wetland permitting process.
Erosion
Create a Regional Sediment Management (RSM) Plan
Create erosion-control easement/agreements with neighboring property owners
Create an Estuarine Shoreline Management Plan
Adopt a Slope/Dune Stabilization Provision
Identify salt marsh migration potential land areas and incorporate into planning
Create a Shore Erosion Control loan program
Create an Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance
Map existing/planned critical infrastructure around marsh migration
Implement a rolling easement
Modify a steep-slope ordinance
Remove development via land purchase to provide flood storage, etc.
Create a Regional Sediment Management (RSM) Plan
Create erosion-control easement/agreements with neighboring property owners
Create an Estuarine Shoreline Management Plan
Adopt a Slope/Dune Stabilization Provision
Identify salt marsh migration potential land areas and incorporate into planning
Create a Shore Erosion Control loan program
Phase out permits for reconstruction of hardened shorelines
Create a Watershed Development Ordinance (WDO)
Create a Regional Sediment Management (RSM) Plan.
Regional coordination of sediment (sand) management efforts along the coastline instead of focusing on individual site by site or town by town sediment management. An RSM considers the sources and sinks along the shoreline, and aims to improve the strategic placement of sediment to benefit coastal processes. It is an opportunity to take a longer view of managing sediment and movement along the shoreline.
Create erosion-control easement/agreements with neighboring property owners.
These agreements allow owners to collectively address erosion issues and implement shared erosion control measures. Collaborative approaches to erosion control can enhance effectiveness and reduce costs for individual landowners.
Create an Estuarine Shoreline Management Plan.
Comprehensively addresses the management of the Town’s estuarine shoreline by addressing erosion and by balancing land use, coastal and climate hazards, ecosystem health, public health, and recreational opportunities.
Adopt a Slope/Dune Stabilization Provision.
To control erosion.
Identify salt marsh migration potential land areas and incorporate into planning.
Identify site-specific areas with salt marsh migration potential and where migration could be facilitated through easements or other land protection strategies and incorporate this into planning and land preservation processes.
Create a Shore Erosion Control loan program.
Fund that provides low-interest loans to property owners for installing or restoring “living shorelines” along waterways.
Create an Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance.
To strengthen controls on development within flood-prone and wetland areas as well as safeguard water resources by preventing soil erosion due to construction activities.
Map existing/planned critical infrastrcuture around marsh migration.
To determine opportunities for retrofits and relocation that will allow for ongoing and future marsh migration.
Implement a rolling easement.
As a rolling easement “rolls” upland as sea levels rise and coastal erosion causes coastline encroachment and newly created property lines, etc., they prohibit development, and can help facilitate the migration of buffers, dunes, living shorelines and wetlands to preserve their value for sea level rise adaptation, flood mitigation, and shoreline protection.
Modify a steep-slope ordinance.
Modify a steep-slope ordinance to account for slopes exposed to increased moisture due to changes in precipitation and sea level rise. A steep slope is a zoning regulation designed to limit disturbance of or development on steep slopes. The purpose of the limitation is to prevent erosion, reduce the risk of dangerous landslides, and preserve scenic hillsides.
Remove development via land purchase to provide flood storage, etc.
Removing development from an existing location by land purchase or land donation, flood insurance buy-out programs, or other means. Undevelopment of a site includes removing buildings from flood hazard areas, areas of increased erosion rates, or threatened by sea level rise, in order to provide the beneficial functions of flood storage capacity, habitat, buffers allowing for the natural migration of coastal resources, and recreational access.
Create a Regional Sediment Management (RSM) Plan.
Regional coordination of sediment (sand) management efforts along the coastline instead of focusing on individual site by site or town by town sediment management. An RSM considers the sources and sinks along the shoreline, and aims to improve the strategic placement of sediment to benefit coastal processes. It is an opportunity to take a longer view of managing sediment and movement along the shoreline.
Create erosion-control easement/agreements with neighboring property owners.
These agreements allow owners to collectively address erosion issues and implement shared erosion control measures. Collaborative approaches to erosion control can enhance effectiveness and reduce costs for individual landowners.
Create an Estuarine Shoreline Management Plan.
Comprehensively addresses the management of the Town’s estuarine shoreline by addressing erosion and by balancing land use, coastal and climate hazards, ecosystem health, public health, and recreational opportunities.
Adopt a Slope/Dune Stabilization Provision.
This helps control erosion.
Identify salt marsh migration potential land areas and incorporate into planning.
Identify site-specific areas with salt marsh migration potential and where migration could be facilitated through easements or other land protection strategies and incorporate this into planning and land preservation processes.
Create a Shore Erosion Control loan program.
Fund that provides low-interest loans to property owners for installing or restoring “living shorelines” along waterways.
Phase out permits for reconstruction of hardened shorelines.
Phase out permits that allow collapsed hardened shoreline structures to be rebuilt in order to incentivize replacing them with nature-based features, such as living shorelines that allow for marsh migration.
Create a Watershed Development Ordinance (WDO).
Establishes minimum standards for stormwater management, including floodplains, detention, soil erosion/sediment control, water quality treatment, and wetlands. Requires that a Watershed Development Permit be obtained for any development that is located in: a regulatory floodplain, a flood-prone area with drainage capacity, in an area that creates a wetland impact, etc.
Financial Incentives
Create a Watershed Reinvestment Fund
Create a permanent source of funding for sensitive area and open space acquisition
Implement a rolling easement
Incorporate fiscal impact analysis into development review and climate change costs
Use Development and/or Redevelopment Incentives
Use tax abatement for development that incorporates mitigation methods
Use Impact / Special Study / Protection Fees for development in hazardous areas
Create Environmental impact bonds (EIBs)
Provide discounted application fees/discounted or waived maintenance bonding requirements for nature-based solutions
Require a land tax on critical/pristine land
Institute property tax relief or freeze for properties that maintain rural character in the face of development pressure
Create cost-share programs to incentivize the use of living shorelines
Develop fee simple acquisitions
Use and expand taxpayer-funded conservation programs
Incorporate tax increment financing (TIF) districts in receiving areas to help services needed in preserved natural areas
Purchase key sites and hold them in a land bank for future development
Buy working land conservation easements
Remove development via land purchase to provide flood storage, etc.
Create a no-adverse-impact certification
Include considerations of sea level rise in Zoning and Overlay districts
Implement Cluster Development
Use Conditional development requirements
Use tax and development incentives to direct growth away from areas vulnerable to SLR
Use tax incentives for donation of undevelopable/less developable lands due to sea level rise
Develop a Buyouts Program
Use Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program to preserve sensitive areas
Create a Stormwater Retention Credit (SRC) Trading program
Use wetland mitigation banking
Create a Stormwater Utility Fee Incentive
Create a Shore Erosion Control loan program
Create a Watershed Reinvestment Fund
Create a permanent source of funding for sensitive area and open space acquisition, such as a sales tax earmark or bond issue
Create a Revolving Loan Program to decrease flooding
Create a Flood Prevention Rebate program
Create a Municipal Sea Level Rise Investment Policy
Require performance bonds for new, noncentralized wastewater systems
Create a Watershed Reinvestment Fund.
To support restoration after wildfire or other climate hazards.
Create a permanent source of funding for sensitive area and open space acquisition.
Such as a sales tax earmark or bond issue.
Implement a rolling easement.
As a rolling easement “rolls” upland as sea levels rise and coastal erosion causes coastline encroachment and newly created property lines, etc., they prohibit development, and can help facilitate the migration of buffers, dunes, living shorelines and wetlands to preserve their value for sea level rise adaptation, flood mitigation, and shoreline protection.
Incorporate fiscal impact analysis into development review and climate change costs.
Making sure it includes costs related to climate change impacts so that these climate risk costs can be integrated into the municipality’s budget.
Use Development and/or Redevelopment Incentives.
Communities can update their land use, zoning, or other local regulations to provide incentives for using nature-based solutions. Zoning incentives can allow a greater height, density, or intensity of development if a developer uses nature-based approaches.
Use tax abatement for development that incorporates mitigation methods.
Tax breaks offered to property owners and developers who use mitigation methods for new development. Tax break examples could include reducing taxes on development exactions, land gains taxation, and special assessment districts.
Use Impact / Special Study / Protection Fees for development in hazardous areas.
Requiring impact fees, special study fees, or protection fees for development in hazardous areas could cover the costs of structural protection. For example, require new developments to pay an impact fee that would finance wastewater system construction costs. As part of this strategy, communities could consider requiring long-term financial maintenance plans for any new decentralized system when reviewing plans for approval.
Create Environmental Impact Bonds (EIBs).
EIBs can help communities obtain upfront capital for hard-to-finance environmental projects. These bonds link project performance incentives to desired environmental outcomes. In practice, most EIBs function like traditional bonds, with a fixed interest rate and term. Unlike normal bonds, they offer investors a “performance payment” if projects perform better than expected.
Provide discounted application fees/discounted or waived maintenance bonding requirements for nature-based solutions.
Incentives for adopting nature-based solutions approaches to be used in the development application and review period. This could include waving permit fees for developments that meet specific nature-based solutions thresholds. For redevelopment, communities can also give a one-time tax credit for using nature-based approaches that benefit the public.
Require a land tax on critical/pristine land.
Require any development on pristine land to pay a premium land tax. These funds could then be used to support the repair or replacement of failing systems as well as the restoration of critical areas.
Institute property tax relief or freeze for properties that maintain rural character in the face of development pressure.
To ensure that surrounding development does not increase land valuation to a point where property owners feel compelled to sell.
Create cost-share programs to incentivize the use of living shorelines.
Incentivize the use of living shorelines to waterfront property owners and marine contractors and the use of riparian buffers and development setbacks.
Develop fee simple acquisitions.
Work with communities and landowners to develop fee simple acquisitions, which is where land trusts own and manage land that is donated or sold, in order to expand and manage conservation areas. This can be done especially in areas where future marsh migration is projected.
Use and expand taxpayer-funded conservation programs.
To protect land, especially for future marsh migration.
Incorporate tax increment financing (TIF) districts in receiving areas to help services needed in preserved natural areas.
Purchase key sites and hold them in a land bank for future development.
Develop partnerships with community development corporations, housing authorities (especially those with bonding power), nonprofit development companies, and others to raise funds needed to acquire desired sites.
Buy working land conservation easements.
To prevent urbanization of these properties and to preserve land-use patterns that in the future can potentially transition to salt marshes.
Remove development via land purchase to provide flood storage, etc.
Removing development from an existing location by land purchase or land donation, flood insurance buy-out programs, or other means. Undevelopment of a site includes removing buildings from flood hazard areas, areas of increased erosion rates, or threatened by sea level rise, in order to provide the beneficial functions of flood storage capacity, habitat, buffers allowing for the natural migration of coastal resources, and recreational access.
Create a no-adverse-impact certification.
Designed to ensure that new construction or structural improvements in the floodplain will not exacerbate upstream or downstream flooding. The regulation would help lower flood insurance premiums for residents downstream.
Include considerations of sea level rise in Zoning and Overlay districts.
The city and county could revise existing conservation resource protection areas and consider expanding them to include consideration of SLR. This strategy could be implemented as a regulatory requirement in the zoning ordinance or as an incentive, through reduced fees, tax credits, streamlined permitting, density bonuses, or financial incentives, in order to limit development in areas vulnerable to SLR. An example of revising and strengthening zoning and overlay districts includes expanding the regulations in place for Velocity Zones (V Zones) to Coastal A Zones. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) regulations require certain design and construction practices in V Zones, such as ensuring that buildings constructed in V Zones are anchored to resist wind and water loads acting simultaneously. These practices are recommended, but not required, for Coastal A Zones, so making these regulations a requirement or incentivizing them for Coastal A Zones would be helpful.
Implement Cluster Development.
Encourage the concentration of new development in upland areas away from future SLR inundation areas. Incentives could include streamlined permitting, relaxed setback, lot size requirements, and height or density bonuses. When implementing cluster development, important things to keep in mind include: setting development caps / population limits; maintaining public infrastructure for cluster development intensity away from hazard areas; and prohibit cluster development in viable agricultural and sensitive natural areas.
Use Conditional Development Requirements.
Special conditions administered by the state on development that occurs in areas identified as vulnerable to future SLR, including requirements for coastal buffers, impact fees to cover emergency response during disasters, or for the construction of flood protection structures.
Use tax and development incentives to direct growth away from areas vulnerable to SLR.
Encourage new development to occur outside of areas identified as vulnerable to SLR using tax and development incentives. Incentives could include tax credits, streamlined permitting for upland development, or financial incentives for infill or redevelopment in currently developed upland areas.
Use tax incentives for donation of undevelopable/less developable lands due to sea level rise.
Develop a Buyouts Program.
Develop an ongoing buyouts program that would re-purpose properties at high-risk and use them to support water management, drainage, and absorption.
Use Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program to preserve sensitive areas.
Fund a PDR program annually out of general fund or other designated revenues. Work with water and drainage districts to use utility and other available fees or taxes for targeted acquisitions (e.g., buying riparian habitat around a lake to protect water quality). Purchase land identified as sensitive natural areas in the comprehensive plan.
Create a Stormwater Retention Credit (SRC) Trading program.
Banking or credit trading programs can help developers meet onsite stormwater retention requirements when nature-based solutions are not feasible onsite. They create a mechanism for developers to pay the community to build nature-based solutions off site. This concept is like that of wetland mitigation banking.
Use wetland mitigation banking.
Wetland mitigation banking is a system of credits and debits devised to ensure that ecological loss, especially loss to wetlands and streams resulting from various development works, is compensated by the preservation and restoration of wetlands, natural habitats, and streams in other areas so that there is no net loss to the environment. Wetland mitigation banking is commonly used to compensate for wetland impacts from development, but it is also used for impacts from agriculture.
Create a Stormwater Utility Fee Incentive.
A stormwater utility fee program can offer incentives for property owners to incorporate nature-based solutions. For example, a program that charges users based on their property’s impervious area could offer discounts when property owners “disconnect” some of their impervious area from the storm sewer system by adding nature-based solutions. Other incentives may be offered for creating more buildings with green roofs and other retention or infiltration systems, or for rainwater harvesting.
Create a Shore Erosion Control loan program.
Fund that provides low-interest loans to property owners for installing or restoring “living shorelines” along waterways.
Create a Watershed Reinvestment Fund.
To support restoration after wildfire or other climate hazards.
Create a permanent source of funding for sensitive area and open space acquisition, such as a sales tax earmark or bond issue.
Create a Revolving Loan Program to decrease flooding.
Allows communities to take out low-interest loans for projects aimed at curbing flooding.
Create a Flood Prevention Rebate program.
For residents who completed flood-proofing projects to prevent flooding on their property.
Create a Municipal Sea Level Rise Investment Policy.
Policy that limits municipal spending in flood hazard areas, unless expressly for adaptation, mitigation, or resilience measures.
Require performance bonds for new, noncentralized wastewater systems.
Requiring a performance bond for a decentralized system could provide the community with some guarantee of the effectiveness of the installed system. A performance bond or escrow account could be used to cover future operation and maintenance costs.
Habitat Conservation
Implement managed realignment in order to create or expand intertidal habitats to aid in flood protection
Phase out permits for reconstruction of hardened shorelines
Create a Native Plant Ordinance
Create an Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance
Require a land tax on critical/pristine land
Institute property tax relief or freeze for properties that maintain rural character in the face of development pressure
Create a Conservation Overlay Zoning District
Create an Open Space or Easement Requirement/Purchase Provision
Develop fee simple acquisitions
Use and expand taxpayer-funded conservation programs
Incorporate tax increment financing (TIF) districts in receiving areas to help services needed in preserved natural areas
Purchase key sites and hold them in a land bank for future development
Buy working land conservation easements
Designate “transition zones”
Create a Marsh Migration Areas Zoning Overlay District
Remove development via land purchase to provide flood storage, etc.
Create a Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO)
Use Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to preserve sensitive areas
Use Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program to preserve sensitive areas
Create an Estuarine Shoreline Management Plan
Create a permanent source of funding for sensitive area and open space acquisition, such as a sales tax earmark or bond issue
Implement managed realignment in order to create or expand intertidal habitats to aid in flood protection
Phase out permits for reconstruction of hardened shorelines
Create a Native Plant Ordinance
Create an Open Space and Parks Master Plan
Implement managed realignment in order to create or expand intertidal habitats to aid in flood protection.
Intentionally exposing a coastal area by removing or altering existing manmade shoreline structures such as bulkheads, revetments, seawalls, and/or coir logs in order to create or expand intertidal habitats that can provide more natural flood protection.
Phase out permits for reconstruction of hardened shorelines.
Phase out permits that allow collapsed hardened shoreline structures to be rebuilt in order to incentivize replacing them with nature-based features, such as living shorelines that allow for marsh migration.
Create a Native Plant Ordinance.
Local codes that allow or require landscaping with native plant and/or salt-tolerant species to preserve natural habitats, improve water quality, etc.
Create an Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance.
To strengthen controls on development within flood-prone and wetland areas as well as safeguard water resources by preventing soil erosion due to construction activities.
Require a land tax on critical/pristine land.
Require any development on pristine land to pay a premium land tax. These funds could then be used to support the repair or replacement of failing systems as well as the restoration of critical areas.
Institute property tax relief or freeze for properties that maintain rural character in the face of development pressure.
To ensure that surrounding development does not increase land valuation to a point where property owners feel compelled to sell.
Create a Conservation Overlay Zoning District.
To help protect sensitive areas.
Create an Open Space or Easement Requirement/Purchase Provision.
Provision encouraging open space purchase by the community or open space easements as an element of development approval.
Develop fee simple acquisitions.
Work with communities and landowners to develop fee simple acquisitions, which is where land trusts own and manage land that is donated or sold, in order to expand and manage conservation areas. This can be done especially in areas where future marsh migration is projected.
Use and expand taxpayer-funded conservation programs.
To protect land, especially for future marsh migration.
Incorporate tax increment financing (TIF) districts in receiving areas to help services needed in preserved natural areas.
Purchase key sites and hold them in a land bank for future development.
Develop partnerships with community development corporations, housing authorities (especially those with bonding power), nonprofit development companies, and others to raise funds needed to acquire desired sites.
Buy working land conservation easements.
To prevent urbanization of these properties and to preserve land-use patterns that in the future can potentially transition to salt marshes.
Designate “transition zones”.
Designate and protect “transition zones” near tidal marshes.
Create a Marsh Migration Areas Zoning Overlay District.
Designate areas that can support future marsh migration as resource protection through shoreland zoning.
Remove development via land purchase to provide flood storage, etc.
Removing development from an existing location by land purchase or land donation, flood insurance buy-out programs, or other means. Undevelopment of a site includes removing buildings from flood hazard areas, areas of increased erosion rates, or threatened by sea level rise, in order to provide the beneficial functions of flood storage capacity, habitat, buffers allowing for the natural migration of coastal resources, and recreational access.
Create a Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO).
This ordinance regulates most activities in “critical areas” and buffers around these areas and requires a permit from the city for regulated activities to occur. Critical areas include wetlands, critical aquifer recharge areas, frequently flooded areas, geologically hazardous areas, fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas (including streams), and designated critical areas of local significance. Required wetland buffer widths are provided in the CAO and range from 25 feet to 200 feet; the buffer width for a given wetland is determined based on the wetland category, adjacent land use, and the functions provided by the wetland.
Use Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to preserve sensitive areas.
Use transfer of development (TDR) rights (otherwsie known as TDR credits or density credits) to allow developers to increase densities on, for example, parcels with low flood risk in return for keeping flood-prone areas vacant.
Use Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program to preserve sensitive areas.
Fund a PDR program annually out of general fund or other designated revenues. Work with water and drainage districts to use utility and other available fees or taxes for targeted acquisitions (e.g., buying riparian habitat around a lake to protect water quality). Purchase land identified as sensitive natural areas in the comprehensive plan.
Create an Estuarine Shoreline Management Plan.
Comprehensively addresses the management of the Town’s estuarine shoreline by addressing erosion and by balancing land use, coastal and climate hazards, ecosystem health, public health, and recreational opportunities.
Create a permanent source of funding for sensitive area and open space acquisition, such as a sales tax earmark or bond issue.
Implement managed realignment in order to create or expand intertidal habitats to aid in flood protection.
Intentionally exposing a coastal area by removing or altering existing manmade shoreline structures such as bulkheads, revetments, seawalls, and/or coir logs in order to create or expand intertidal habitats that can provide more natural flood protection.
Phase out permits for reconstruction of hardened shorelines.
Phase out permits that allow collapsed hardened shoreline structures to be rebuilt in order to incentivize replacing them with nature-based features, such as living shorelines that allow for marsh migration.
Create a Native Plant Ordinance.
Local codes that allow or require landscaping with native plant and/or salt-tolerant species to preserve natural habitats, improve water quality, etc.
Create an Open Space and Parks Master Plan.
Develop a plan that would increase the amount of open space and parks in Town. In addition to enhancing resilience to flooding and providing critical habitat for threatened and endangered species, parks and open space enhance the community’s overall health and well being.
Rain-Based Flooding/Extreme Events
Create an Open Space and Parks Master Plan
Create a Floodplain Management Plan
Create a Stormwater Capital Improvements Planning Process / Stormwater Infrastructure Mapping
Adopt a site plan requirement for new development to retain all stormwater on-site
Create a Ditches and Tributaries Easement
Create an Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance
Modify a steep-slope ordinance
Create a Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO)
Create an upland resilience overlay (URO)
Create a no-adverse-impact certification
Create a Fill Ordinance
Create freeboard requirements of 2-3 ft above base flood elevation (BFE)
Develop a Buyouts Program
Use Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to preserve sensitive areas
Use Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program to preserve sensitive areas
Require bulk regulations to help manage stormwater
Create a Resilience Quotient for Development
Create a Stormwater Utility Fee Incentive
Phase out permits for reconstruction of hardened shorelines
Create an Open Space and Parks Master Plan
Create a Floodplain Management Plan
Create a Stormwater Capital Improvements Planning Process / Stormwater Infrastructure Mapping
Adopt a site plan requirement for new development to retain all stormwater on-site
Create a Ditches and Tributaries Easement
Inventory flood protection measures already in place
Require the placement of new critical facilities outside of the 500-year floodplain
Revise infrastructure design standards for flooding issues
Create a Revolving Loan Program to decrease flooding
Create a Flood Prevention Rebate program
Create a Municipal Sea Level Rise Investment Policy
Make a policy shift to submersible pump stations
Adopt 500-year floodplain as the “locally regulated floodplain”
Create a Watershed Development Ordinance (WDO)
Develop and update regional water models
Create a Drainage Ditch and Tributary Maintenance Plan / Drainage Improvement Feasibility Study
Create a Stormwater interagency group
Create an Open Space and Parks Master Plan.
Develop a plan that would increase the amount of open space and parks in Town. In addition to enhancing resilience to flooding and providing critical habitat for threatened and endangered species, parks and open space enhance the community’s overall health and wellbeing.
Create a Floodplain Management Plan.
Plan that ensures open space is designed in floodplains. (This plan is an accredited activity under the Community Rating System).
Create a Stormwater Capital Improvements Planning Process / Stormwater Infrastructure Mapping.
This process plays a key role in assessing and determining a community’s resilience to rain-based flooding and the distribution of pre-flood event resources. The process assesses drainage infrastructure needs within a jurisdiction over a defined time frame. Mapping all stormwater infrastructure within Town limits would help determine service gaps and needs.
Adopt a site plan requirement for new development to retain all stormwater on-site.
Require new development or redevelopment to capture and infiltrate the first 1 or 1.5 inches of rain.
Create a Ditches and Tributaries Easement.
To maintain drainage ditches and tributaries. Once easements are obtained, identify locations where stormwater control methods could be implemented to provide water capacity and/or treat water.
Create an Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance.
To strengthen controls on development within flood-prone and wetland areas as well as safeguard water resources by preventing soil erosion due to construction activities.
Modify a steep-slope ordinance.
Modify a steep-slope ordinance to account for slopes exposed to increased moisture due to changes in precipitation and sea level rise. A steep slope is a zoning regulation designed to limit disturbance of or development on steep slopes. The purpose of the limitation is to prevent erosion, reduce the risk of dangerous landslides, and preserve scenic hillsides.
Create a Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO).
This ordinance regulates most activities in “critical areas” and buffers around these areas and requires a permit from the city for regulated activities to occur. Critical areas include wetlands, critical aquifer recharge areas, frequently flooded areas, geologically hazardous areas, fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas (including streams), and designated critical areas of local significance. Required wetland buffer widths are provided in the CAO and range from 25 feet to 200 feet; the buffer width for a given wetland is determined based on the wetland category, adjacent land use, and the functions provided by the wetland.
Create an upland resilience overlay (URO).
Encourages development in higher areas, with the goal of transforming them into “walkable, bikeable, transit-rich neighborhoods.” Property owners in the URO can forgo some resilience requirements in these areas, which have less flood risk—if they agree to relinquish development rights in areas vulnerable to flooding in the coastal resilience overlay so these areas can be used for water retention or flood protection.
Create a no-adverse-impact certification.
Designed to ensure that new construction or structural improvements in the floodplain will not exacerbate upstream or downstream flooding. The regulation would help lower flood insurance premiums for residents downstream.
Create a Fill Ordinance.
Limits the import of large quantities of fill dirt to build the land up out of the floodplain to reduce the amount of quick and destructive development. Encourages responsible and resilient development in the floodplain by siting infrastructure on the highest portion of parcels and/or utilizing alternative methods of raising infrastructure out of the floodplain, like stilts.
Create freeboard requirements of 2-3 ft above base flood elevation (BFE).
Require a structure’s lowest floor to be placed 2-3 feet (or at least 1ft at a minimum) above the 100-year flood level and incorporate this into a floodplain management ordinance. Having freeboard provisions provides a margin of safety for new development in poorly mapped areas.
Develop a Buyouts Program.
Develop an ongoing buyouts program that would re-purpose properties at high-risk and use them to support water management, drainage, and absorption.
Use Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to preserve sensitive areas.
Use transfer of development (TDR) rights (otherwise known as TDR credits or density credits) to allow developers to increase densities on, for example, parcels with low flood risk in return for keeping flood-prone areas vacant.
Use Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program to preserve sensitive areas.
Fund a PDR program annually out of general fund or other designated revenues. Work with water and drainage districts to use utility and other available fees or taxes for targeted acquisitions (e.g., buying riparian habitat around a lake to protect water quality). Purchase land identified as sensitive natural areas in the comprehensive plan.
Require bulk regulations to help manage stormwater.
Bulk regulations include minimum building setbacks, minimum open space requirements/lot coverage maximums, and floor area ratio requirements. Each of these limits the amount of developed area on a given property and, when looked at cumulatively across an entire community, can help to manage stormwater before it becomes a flooding issue.
Create a Resilience Quotient for Development.
Developers are encouraged to meet a resilience quotient,which is a threshold of meeting three standards set for flood risk reduction, stormwater management, and energy resilience. Each new development and redevelopment project (both residential and nonresidential) must achieve a minimum threshold of points that are awarded based on whether the project meets standards to boost its resilience against flooding and other threats. The resilience quotient varies by the type of development and ensures that developers think holistically about site design. Norfolk, VA, is an example of a jurisdiction with a zoning ordinance that requires all new development to meet a resilience quotient.
Create a Stormwater Utility Fee Incentive.
A stormwater utility fee program can offer incentives for property owners to incorporate nature-based solutions. For example, a program that charges users based on their property’s impervious area could offer discounts when property owners “disconnect” some of their impervious area from the storm sewer system by adding nature-based solutions. Other incentives may be offered for creating more buildings with green roofs and other retention or infiltration systems, or for rainwater harvesting.
Phase out permits for reconstruction of hardened shorelines.
Phase out permits that allow collapsed hardened shoreline structures to be rebuilt in order to incentivize replacing them with nature-based features, such as living shorelines that allow for marsh migration.
Create an Open Space and Parks Master Plan.
Develop a plan that would increase the amount of open space and parks in Town. In addition to enhancing resilience to flooding and providing critical habitat for threatened and endangered species, parks and open space enhance the community’s overall health and well being.
Create a Floodplain Management Plan.
Plan that ensures open space is designed in floodplains. (This plan is an accredited activity under the Community Rating System)
Create a Stormwater Capital Improvements Planning Process / Stormwater Infrastructure Mapping.
This process plays a key role in assessing and determining a community’s resilience to rain-based flooding and the distribution of pre-flood event resources. The process assesses drainage infrastructure needs within a jurisdiction over a defined timeframe. Mapping all stormwater infrastructure within Town limits would help determine service gaps and needs.
Adopt a site plan requirement for new development to retain all stormwater on-site.
Require new development or redevelopment to capture and infiltrate the first 1 or 1.5 inches of rain.
Create a Ditches and Tributaries Easement.
To maintain drainage ditches and tributaries. Once easements are obtained, identify locations where stormwater control methods could be implemented to provide water capacity and/or treat water.
Inventory flood protection measures already in place.
Ensure records are kept on measures taken for each location in the floodplain.
Require the placement of new critical facilities outside of the 500-year floodplain.
Critical facilities include hospitals, police and fire stations, schools, power-related facilities, and treatment facilities.
Revise infrastructure design standards for flooding issues.
Monitor and review design standards every 5 to 10 years as assets are replaced (elevation, flood-proofing, removing of aerial lines from service, decommissioning pump stations, etc.).
Create a Revolving Loan Program to decrease flooding.
Allows communities to take out low-interest loans for projects aimed at curbing flooding.
Create a Flood Prevention Rebate program.
For residents who completed flood-proofing projects to prevent flooding on their property.
Create a Municipal Sea Level Rise Investment Policy.
Policy that limits municipal spending in flood hazard areas, unless expressly for adaptation, mitigation, or resilience measures.
Make a policy shift to submersible pump stations.
Submersible pumps are designed to operate underwater, as opposed to suction lift and dry well pumps. Submersible pumps provide greater resilience to flooding and potential high flood depths than do the other pump options for wastewater/drainage.
Adopt 500-year floodplain as the “locally regulated floodplain”.
Create a Watershed Development Ordinance (WDO).
Establishes minimum standards for stormwater management, including floodplains, detention, soil erosion/sediment control, water quality treatment, and wetlands. Requires that a Watershed Development Permit be obtained for any development that is located in: a regulatory floodplain, a flood-prone area with drainage capacity, in an area that creates a wetland impact, etc.
Develop and update regional water models.
Ensuring they account for future climate conditions.
Create a Drainage Ditch and Tributary Maintenance Plan / Drainage Improvement Feasibility Study.
Development of a maintenance plan for cleaning out drainage ditches and tributaries and identify areas that could be turned into bioswales for treatment of runoff, both of which will help reduce flooding and improve water quality. The Feasibility study could identify alternative discharge locations.
Create a stormwater interagency group.
To develop and implement a coordinated watershed based approach to update stormwater management plans.
Tidal Flooding/Sea Level Rise
Incorporate projected sea level rise impacts to future land use planning and flood zone hazard maps
Create rebuilding standards/guidance on areas vulnerable to sea level rise
Inventory flood protection measures already in place
Require the placement of new critical facilities outside of the 500-year floodplain
Revise infrastructure design standards for flooding issues
Create a Revolving Loan Program to decrease flooding
Create a Flood Prevention Rebate program
Create a Municipal Sea Level Rise Investment Policy
Make a policy shift to submersible pump stations
Create a Policy to Prohibit New Wells and Septics in Vulnerable Areas
Adopt 500-year floodplain as the “locally regulated floodplain”
Map existing/planned critical infrastructure around marsh migration
Implement a rolling easement
Modify a steep-slope ordinance
Create cost-share programs to incentivize the use of living shorelines
Designate “transition zones”
Create a Marsh Migration Areas Zoning Overlay District
Remove development via land purchase to provide flood storage, etc.
Create a Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO)
Create an upland resilience overlay (URO)
Create a no-adverse-impact certification
Establish a Technical Review Committee (TRC)
Include considerations of sea level rise in Zoning and Overlay districts
Implement Cluster Development
Use Conditional development requirements
Use tax and development incentives to direct growth away from areas vulnerable to SLR
Use tax incentives for donation of undevelopable/less developable lands due to sea level rise
Create freeboard requirements of 2-3 ft above base flood elevation (BFE)
Create a Fill Ordinance
Develop a Buyouts Program
Use Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to preserve sensitive areas
Use Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program to preserve sensitive areas
Require bulk regulations to help manage stormwater
Create a Resilience Quotient for Development
Create a Stormwater Utility Fee Incentive
Adopt a Slope/Dune Stabilization Provision
Identify salt marsh migration potential land areas and incorporate into planning
Create a Shore Erosion Control loan program
Implement managed realignment in order to create or expand intertidal habitats to aid in flood protection
Phase out permits for reconstruction of hardened shorelines
Create an Open Space and Parks Master Plan
Create a Floodplain Management Plan
Incorporate projected sea level rise impacts to future land use planning and flood zone hazard maps
Create rebuilding standards/guidance on areas vulnerable to sea level rise
Inventory flood protection measures already in place
Require the placement of new critical facilities outside of the 500-year floodplain
Revise infrastructure design standards for flooding issues
Create a Revolving Loan Program to decrease flooding
Create a Flood Prevention Rebate program
Create a Municipal Sea Level Rise Investment Policy
Make a policy shift to submersible pump stations
Create a Policy to Prohibit New Wells and Septics in Vulnerable Areas
Adopt 500-year floodplain as the “locally regulated floodplain”
Create a Watershed Development Ordinance (WDO)
Monitor aquifers for saltwater intrusion
Develop and update regional water models
Create a Drainage Ditch and Tributary Maintenance Plan / Drainage Improvement Feasibility Study
Create a stormwater interagency group
Incorporate projected sea level rise impacts to future land use planning and flood zone hazard maps.
Replace past sea level rise trends and historical events with projections.
Create rebuilding standards/guidance on areas vulnerable to sea level rise.
Standards or guidance to inform property owners on where, when, and how structures that have been destroyed are rebuilt. This strategy could be expanded to include redevelopment of existing structures that have not been destroyed.
Inventory flood protection measures already in place.
Ensure records are kept on measures taken for each location in the floodplain.
Require the placement of new critical facilities outside of the 500-year floodplain.
Critical facilities include hospitals, police and fire stations, schools, power-related facilities, and treatment facilities.
Revise infrastructure design standards for flooding issues.
Monitor and review design standards every 5 to 10 years as assets are replaced (elevation, flood-proofing, removing of aerial lines from service, decommissioning pump stations, etc.).
Create a Revolving Loan Program to decrease flooding.
Allows communities to take out low-interest loans for projects aimed at curbing flooding.
Create a Flood Prevention Rebate program.
For residents who completed flood-proofing projects to prevent flooding on their property.
Create a Municipal Sea Level Rise Investment Policy.
Policy that limits municipal spending in flood hazard areas, unless expressly for adaptation, mitigation, or resilience measures.
Make a policy shift to submersible pump stations.
Submersible pumps are designed to operate underwater, as opposed to suction lift and dry well pumps. Submersible pumps provide greater resilience to flooding and potential high flood depths than do the other pump options for wastewater/drainage.
Create a Policy to Prohibit New Wells and Septics in Vulnerable Areas.
Discourage or prohibit new drinking water wells and septics near the coastline and avoid drilling of excessively deep wells in close proximity to the coastline to limit groundwater/seawater intrusion as sea level rises.
Adopt 500-year floodplain as the “locally regulated floodplain”.
Map existing/planned critical infrastructure around marsh migration.
To determine opportunities for retrofits and relocation that will allow for ongoing and future marsh migration.
Implement a rolling easement.
As a rolling easement “rolls” upland as sea levels rise and coastal erosion causes coastline encroachment and newly created property lines, etc., they prohibit development, and can help facilitate the migration of buffers, dunes, living shorelines and wetlands to preserve their value for sea level rise adaptation, flood mitigation, and shoreline protection.
Modify a steep-slope ordinance.
Modify a steep-slope ordinance to account for slopes exposed to increased moisture due to changes in precipitation and sea level rise. A steep slope is a zoning regulation designed to limit disturbance of or development on steep slopes. The purpose of the limitation is to prevent erosion, reduce the risk of dangerous landslides, and preserve scenic hillsides.
Create cost-share programs to incentivize the use of living shorelines.
Incentivize the use of living shorelines to waterfront property owners and marine contractors and the use of riparian buffers and development setbacks.
Designate “transition zones”.
Designate and protect “transition zones” near tidal marshes.
Create a Marsh Migration Areas Zoning Overlay District.
Designate areas that can support future marsh migration as resource protection through shoreland zoning.
Remove development via land purchase to provide flood storage, etc.
Removing development from an existing location by land purchase or land donation, flood insurance buy-out programs, or other means. Undevelopment of a site includes removing buildings from flood hazard areas, areas of increased erosion rates, or threatened by sea level rise, in order to provide the beneficial functions of flood storage capacity, habitat, buffers allowing for the natural migration of coastal resources, and recreational access.
Create a Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO).
This ordinance regulates most activities in “critical areas” and buffers around these areas and requires a permit from the city for regulated activities to occur. Critical areas include wetlands, critical aquifer recharge areas, frequently flooded areas, geologically hazardous areas, fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas (including streams), and designated critical areas of local significance. Required wetland buffer widths are provided in the CAO and range from 25 feet to 200 feet; the buffer width for a given wetland is determined based on the wetland category, adjacent land use, and the functions provided by the wetland.
Create an upland resilience overlay (URO).
Encourages development in higher areas, with the goal of transforming them into “walkable, bikeable, transit-rich neighborhoods.” Property owners in the URO can forgo some resilience requirements in these areas, which have less flood risk—if they agree to relinquish development rights in areas vulnerable to flooding in the coastal resilience overlay so these areas can be used for water retention or flood protection.
Create a no-adverse-impact certification.
Designed to ensure that new construction or structural improvements in the floodplain will not exacerbate upstream or downstream flooding. The regulation would help lower flood insurance premiums for residents downstream.
Establish a Technical Review Committee (TRC).
To ensure all development is compliant with local codes and guidelines and to integrate sea level rise into discussions when reviewing development plans.
Include considerations of sea level rise in Zoning and Overlay districts.
The city and county could revise existing conservation resource protection areas and consider expanding them to include consideration of SLR. This strategy could be implemented as a regulatory requirement in the zoning ordinance or as an incentive, through reduced fees, tax credits, streamlined permitting, density bonuses, or financial incentives, in order to limit development in areas vulnerable to SLR. An example of revising and strengthening zoning and overlay districts includes expanding the regulations in place for Velocity Zones (V Zones) to Coastal A Zones. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) regulations require certain design and construction practices in V Zones, such as ensuring that buildings constructed in V Zones are anchored to resist wind and water loads acting simultaneously. These practices are recommended, but not required, for Coastal A Zones, so making these regulations a requirement or incentivizing them for Coastal A Zones would be helpful.
Implement Cluster Development.
Encourage the concentration of new development in upland areas away from future SLR inundation areas. Incentives could include streamlined permitting, relaxed setback, lot size requirements, and height or density bonuses. When implementing cluster development, important things to keep in mind include: setting development caps / population limits; maintaining public infrastructure for cluster development intensity away from hazard areas; and prohibit cluster development in viable agricultural and sensitive natural areas.
Use Conditional Development Requirements.
Special conditions administered by the state on development that occurs in areas identified as vulnerable to future SLR, including requirements for coastal buffers, impact fees to cover emergency response during disasters, or for the construction of flood protection structures.
Use tax and development incentives to direct growth away from areas vulnerable to SLR.
Encourage new development to occur outside of areas identified as vulnerable to SLR using tax and development incentives. Incentives could include tax credits, streamlined permitting for upland development, or financial incentives for infill or redevelopment in currently developed upland areas.
Use tax incentives for donation of undevelopable/less developable lands due to sea level rise.
Create freeboard requirements of 2-3 ft above base flood elevation (BFE).
Require a structure’s lowest floor to be placed 2-3 feet (or at least 1ft at a minimum) above the 100-year flood level and incorporate this into a floodplain management ordinance. Having freeboard provisions provides a margin of safety for new development in poorly mapped areas.
Create a Fill Ordinance.
Limits the import of large quantities of fill dirt to build the land up out of the floodplain to reduce the amount of quick and destructive development. Encourages responsible and resilient development in the floodplain by siting infrastructure on the highest portion of parcels and/or utilizing alternative methods of raising infrastructure out of the floodplain, like stilts.
Develop a Buyouts Program.
Develop an ongoing buyouts program that would re-purpose properties at high-risk and use them to support water management, drainage, and absorption.
Use Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to preserve sensitive areas.
Use transfer of development (TDR) rights (otherwise known as TDR credits or density credits) to allow developers to increase densities on, for example, parcels with low flood risk in return for keeping flood-prone areas vacant.
Use Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program to preserve sensitive areas.
Fund a PDR program annually out of general fund or other designated revenues. Work with water and drainage districts to use utility and other available fees or taxes for targeted acquisitions (e.g., buying riparian habitat around a lake to protect water quality). Purchase land identified as sensitive natural areas in the comprehensive plan.
Require bulk regulations to help manage stormwater.
Bulk regulations include minimum building setbacks, minimum open space requirements/lot coverage maximums, and floor area ratio requirements. Each of these limits the amount of developed area on a given property and, when looked at cumulatively across an entire community, can help to manage stormwater before it becomes a flooding issue.
Create a Resilience Quotient for Development.
Developers are encouraged to meet a resilience quotient, which is a threshold of meeting three standards set for flood risk reduction, stormwater management, and energy resilience. Each new development and redevelopment project (both residential and nonresidential) must achieve a minimum threshold of points that are awarded based on whether the project meets standards to boost its resilience against flooding and other threats. The resilience quotient varies by the type of development and ensures that developers think holistically about site design. Norfolk, VA, is an example of a jurisdiction with a zoning ordinance that requires all new development to meet a resilience quotient.
Create a Stormwater Utility Fee Incentive.
A stormwater utility fee program can offer incentives for property owners to incorporate nature-based solutions. For example, a program that charges users based on their property’s impervious area could offer discounts when property owners “disconnect” some of their impervious area from the storm sewer system by adding nature-based solutions. Other incentives may be offered for creating more buildings with green roofs and other retention or infiltration systems, or for rainwater harvesting.
Adopt a Slope/Dune Stabilization Provision.
This helps control erosion.
Identify salt marsh migration potential land areas and incorporate into planning.
Identify site-specific areas with salt marsh migration potential and where migration could be facilitated through easements or other land protection strategies and incorporate this into planning and land preservation processes.
Create a Shore Erosion Control loan program.
Fund that provides low-interest loans to property owners for installing or restoring “living shorelines” along waterways.
Implement managed realignment in order to create or expand intertidal habitats to aid in flood protection.
Intentionally exposing a coastal area by removing or altering existing man made shoreline structures such as bulkheads, revetments, seawalls, and/or coir logs in order to create or expand intertidal habitats that can provide more natural flood protection.
Phase out permits for reconstruction of hardened shorelines.
Phase out permits that allow collapsed hardened shoreline structures to be rebuilt in order to incentivize replacing them with nature-based features, such as living shorelines that allow for marsh migration.
Create an Open Space and Parks Master Plan.
Develop a plan that would increase the amount of open space and parks in Town. In addition to enhancing resilience to flooding and providing critical habitat for threatened and endangered species, parks and open space enhance the community’s overall health and well being.
Create a Floodplain Management Plan.
Plan that ensures open space is designed in floodplains. (This plan is an accredited activity under the Community Rating System)
Incorporate projected sea level rise impacts to future land use planning and flood zone hazard maps.
Replace past sea level rise trends and historical events with projections.
Create rebuilding standards/guidance on areas vulnerable to sea level rise.
Standards or guidance to inform property owners on where, when, and how structures that have been destroyed are rebuilt. This strategy could be expanded to include redevelopment of existing structures that have not been destroyed.
Inventory flood protection measures already in place.
Ensure records are kept on measures taken for each location in the floodplain.
Require the placement of new critical facilities outside of the 500-year floodplain.
Critical facilities include hospitals, police and fire stations, schools, power-related facilities, and treatment facilities.
Revise infrastructure design standards for flooding issues.
Monitor and review design standards every 5 to 10 years as assets are replaced (elevation, flood-proofing, removing of aerial lines from service, decommissioning pump stations, etc.).
Create a Revolving Loan Program to decrease flooding.
Allows communities to take out low-interest loans for projects aimed at curbing flooding.
Create a Flood Prevention Rebate program.
For residents who completed flood-proofing projects to prevent flooding on their property.
Create a Municipal Sea Level Rise Investment Policy.
Policy that limits municipal spending in flood hazard areas, unless expressly for adaptation, mitigation, or resilience measures.
Make a policy shift to submersible pump stations.
Submersible pumps are designed to operate underwater, as opposed to suction lift and dry well pumps. Submersible pumps provide greater resilience to flooding and potential high flood depths than do the other pump options for wastewater/drainage.
Create a Policy to Prohibit New Wells and Septics in Vulnerable Areas.
Discourage or prohibit new drinking water wells and septics near the coastline and avoid drilling of excessively deep wells in close proximity to the coastline to limit groundwater/seawater intrusion as sea level rises.
Adopt 500-year floodplain as the “locally regulated floodplain”.
Create a Watershed Development Ordinance (WDO).
Establishes minimum standards for stormwater management, including floodplains, detention, soil erosion/sediment control, water quality treatment, and wetlands. Requires that a Watershed Development Permit be obtained for any development that is located in: a regulatory floodplain, a flood-prone area with drainage capacity, in an area that creates a wetland impact, etc.
Monitor aquifers for saltwater intrusion.
To understand the impacts of salt water intrusion on water quality.
Develop and update regional water models.
Ensuring they account for future climate conditions.
Create a Drainage Ditch and Tributary Maintenance Plan / Drainage Improvement Feasibility Study.
Development of a maintenance plan for cleaning out drainage ditches and tributaries and identify areas that could be turned into bioswales for treatment of runoff, both of which will help reduce flooding and improve water quality. The Feasibility study could identify alternative discharge locations.
Create a stormwater interagency group.
To develop and implement a coordinated watershed based approach to update stormwater management plans.
Water Quality
Diversify water supply options
Create a Wastewater and Water Asset Management Plan
Conduct a Sewer Feasibility Study
Create a municipal septic management district or a responsible management entity (RME)
Create criteria to determine which neighborhoods should be connected to a centralized wastewater system
Create a Community Wetland Review Board
Create a Watershed Development Ordinance (WDO)
Require performance bonds for new, noncentralized wastewater systems
Monitor aquifers for saltwater intrusion
Develop and update regional water models
Create a Drainage Ditch and Tributary Maintenance Plan / Drainage Improvement Feasibility Study
Create a stormwater interagency group
Create a Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO)
Use Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to preserve sensitive areas
Use Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program to preserve sensitive areas
Create a Wetland Protection Ordinance / Critical Line and Wetland Buffer Ordinance
Adopt wetland development standards into the city municipal development code
Create a Stormwater Retention Credit (SRC) Trading program
Use Wetland mitigation banking
Require bulk regulations to help manage stormwater
Create a Resilience Quotient for Development
Create a Stormwater Utility Fee Incentive
Create a Native Plant Ordinance
Create an Open Space and Parks Master Plan
Create a Floodplain Management Plan
Create a Stormwater Capital Improvements Planning Process / Stormwater Infrastructure Mapping
Adopt a site plan requirement for new development to retain all stormwater on-site
Create a Ditches and Tributaries Easement
Make a policy shift to submersible pump stations
Create a Policy to Prohibit New Wells and Septics in Vulnerable Areas
Diversify water supply options
Create a Wastewater and Water Asset Management Plan
Conduct a Sewer Feasibility Study
Create a municipal septic management district or a responsible management entity (RME)
Create criteria to determine which neighborhoods should be connected to a centralized wastewater system
Create a Community Wetland Review Board
Create a Watershed Development Ordinance (WDO)
Require performance bonds for new, noncentralized wastewater systems
Monitor aquifers for saltwater intrusion
Develop and update regional water models
Create a Drainage Ditch and Tributary Maintenance Plan / Drainage Improvement Feasibility Study
Create a stormwater interagency group
Diversify water supply options.
Expand water supply sources to include surface water, groundwater, aquifer storage and recovery (ASR), recycled water, conjunctive use, and stormwater capture.
Create a Wastewater and Water Asset Management Plan.
Asset management is a process water and wastewater utilities can use to make sure that planned maintenance can be conducted and capital assets (pumps, motors, pipes, etc.) can be repaired, replaced, or upgraded on time and that there is enough money to pay for it.
Conduct a Sewer Feasibility Study.
To determine the possibility, potential cost, and funding options for a municipal sewer system to replace septic systems.
Create a municipal septic management district or a responsible management entity (RME).
To be responsible for the repair, replacement, and maintenance of homeowners’ septic systems. In this case, the municipality or the RME can pay for or organize the replacement of the failing system. The RME would then be responsible for the ongoing maintenance. The homeowner would pay a fee for this service, similar to the sewer fee homeowners pay on centralized treatment systems.
Create criteria to determine which neighborhoods should be connected to a centralized wastewater system.
Create indicators/criteria to determine when a neighborhood with failing septic systems might be a good candidate to connect to a centralized system and when it should consider different alternatives. For example, areas planned for additional growth with moderate densities might be better candidates for centralized systems. Areas not planned for growth and with very low densities, such as 1 unit per 20 or more acres, might be better suited to septic replacement.
Create a Community Wetland Review Board.
Comprised of community members who are appointed by a Township Board and involved in the wetland permitting process.
Create a Watershed Development Ordinance (WDO).
Establishes minimum standards for stormwater management, including floodplains, detention, soil erosion/sediment control, water quality treatment, and wetlands. Requires that a Watershed Development Permit be obtained for any development that is located in: a regulatory floodplain, a flood-prone area with drainage capacity, in an area that creates a wetland impact, etc.
Require performance bonds for new, noncentralized wastewater systems.
Requiring a performance bond for a decentralized system could provide the community with some guarantee of the effectiveness of the installed system. A performance bond or escrow account could be used to cover future operation and maintenance costs.
Monitor aquifers for saltwater intrusion.
To understand the impacts of salt water intrusion on water quality.
Develop and update regional water models.
Ensuring they account for future climate conditions.
Create a Drainage Ditch and Tributary Maintenance Plan / Drainage Improvement Feasibility Study.
Development of a maintenance plan for cleaning out drainage ditches and tributaries and identify areas that could be turned into bioswales for treatment of runoff, both of which will help reduce flooding and improve water quality. The Feasibility study could identify alternative discharge locations.
Create a stormwater interagency group.
To develop and implement a coordinated watershed based approach to update stormwater management plans.
Create a Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO).
This ordinance regulates most activities in “critical areas” and buffers around these areas and requires a permit from the city for regulated activities to occur. Critical areas include wetlands, critical aquifer recharge areas, frequently flooded areas, geologically hazardous areas, fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas (including streams), and designated critical areas of local significance. Required wetland buffer widths are provided in the CAO and range from 25 feet to 200 feet; the buffer width for a given wetland is determined based on the wetland category, adjacent land use, and the functions provided by the wetland.
Use Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to preserve sensitive areas.
Use transfer of development (TDR) rights (otherwise known as TDR credits or density credits) to allow developers to increase densities on, for example, parcels with low flood risk in return for keeping flood-prone areas vacant.
Use Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program to preserve sensitive areas.
Fund a PDR program annually out of general fund or other designated revenues. Work with water and drainage districts to use utility and other available fees or taxes for targeted acquisitions (e.g., buying riparian habitat around a lake to protect water quality). Purchase land identified as sensitive natural areas in the comprehensive plan.
Create a Wetland Protection Ordinance / Critical Line and Wetland Buffer Ordinance.
Ordinance to protect noncontiguous wetlands that are not covered by state regulations and increase protection of remaining contiguous wetlands through requiring a a wetland use permit to conduct activities within a wetland such as: depositing or permitting the placement of fill material; grading of the surface profile of the land; dredging, removing, or permitting the removal of soil, vegetation, or minerals; draining any water into or from a wetland; and constructing, operating, or maintaining any use or development.
Establish regulations that enforce zones of vegetation between potentially polluting areas and adjacent designated critical areas in the coastal zone in order to protect water quality and wildlife habitat. Include both preferred and minimum buffer widths, such as a 100-foot buffer from the edge of tidal waters/wetlands. Town staff work with applicants to strive for larger buffers but have the flexibility to allow for smaller buffers based on project-specific information such as lot size or the amount of impervious cover on the site.
Adopt wetland development standards into the city municipal development code.
Implement Wetland and Riparian Corridor Development Standards within the Development Code. These standards state that projects impacting land in or within 25 feet of wetlands must obtain approvals, and that no impacts to “locally significant wetlands” are allowed.
Create a Stormwater Retention Credit (SRC) Trading program.
Banking or credit trading programs can help developers meet onsite stormwater retention requirements when nature-based solutions are not feasible onsite. They create a mechanism for developers to pay the community to build nature-based solutions off site. This concept is like that of wetland mitigation banking.
Use Wetland mitigation banking.
Wetland mitigation banking is a system of credits and debits devised to ensure that ecological loss, especially loss to wetlands and streams resulting from various development works, is compensated by the preservation and restoration of wetlands, natural habitats, and streams in other areas so that there is no net loss to the environment. Wetland mitigation banking is commonly used to compensate for wetland impacts from development, but it is also used for impacts from agriculture.
Require bulk regulations to help manage stormwater.
Bulk regulations include minimum building setbacks, minimum open space requirements/lot coverage maximums, and floor area ratio requirements. Each of these limits the amount of developed area on a given property and, when looked at cumulatively across an entire community, can help to manage stormwater before it becomes a flooding issue.
Create a Resilience Quotient for Development.
Developers are encouraged to meet a resilience quotient,which is a threshold of meeting three standards set for flood risk reduction, stormwater management, and energy resilience. Each new development and redevelopment project (both residential and nonresidential) must achieve a minimum threshold of points that are awarded based on whether the project meets standards to boost its resilience against flooding and other threats. The resilience quotient varies by the type of development and ensures that developers think holistically about site design. Norfolk, VA, is an example of a jurisdiction with a zoning ordinance that requires all new development to meet a resilience quotient.
Create a Stormwater Utility Fee Incentive.
A stormwater utility fee program can offer incentives for property owners to incorporate nature-based solutions. For example, a program that charges users based on their property’s impervious area could offer discounts when property owners “disconnect” some of their impervious area from the storm sewer system by adding nature-based solutions. Other incentives may be offered for creating more buildings with green roofs and other retention or infiltration systems, or for rainwater harvesting.
Create a Native Plant Ordinance.
Local codes that allow or require landscaping with native plant and/or salt-tolerant species to preserve natural habitats, improve water quality, etc.
Create an Open Space and Parks Master Plan.
Develop a plan that would increase the amount of open space and parks in Town. In addition to enhancing resilience to flooding and providing critical habitat for threatened and endangered species, parks and open space enhance the community’s overall health and well being.
Create a Floodplain Management Plan.
Plan that ensures open space is designed in floodplains. (This plan is an accredited activity under the Community Rating System)
Create a Stormwater Capital Improvements Planning Process / Stormwater Infrastructure Mapping.
This process plays a key role in assessing and determining a community’s resilience to rain-based flooding and the distribution of pre-flood event resources. The process assesses drainage infrastructure needs within a jurisdiction over a defined time frame. Mapping all stormwater infrastructure within Town limits would help determine service gaps and needs.
Adopt a site plan requirement for new development to retain all stormwater on-site.
Require new development or redevelopment to capture and infiltrate the first 1 or 1.5 inches of rain.
Create a Ditches and Tributaries Easement.
To maintain drainage ditches and tributaries. Once easements are obtained, identify locations where stormwater control methods could be implemented to provide water capacity and/or treat water.
Make a policy shift to submersible pump stations.
Submersible pumps are designed to operate underwater, as opposed to suction lift and dry well pumps. Submersible pumps provide greater resilience to flooding and potential high flood depths than do the other pump options for wastewater/drainage.
Create a Policy to Prohibit New Wells and Septics in Vulnerable Areas.
Discourage or prohibit new drinking water wells and septics near the coastline and avoid drilling of excessively deep wells in close proximity to the coastline to limit groundwater/seawater intrusion as sea level rises.
Diversify water supply options.
Expand water supply sources to include surface water, groundwater, aquifer storage and recovery (ASR), recycled water, conjunctive use, and stormwater capture.
Create a Wastewater and Water Asset Management Plan.
Asset management is a process water and wastewater utilities can use to make sure that planned maintenance can be conducted and capital assets (pumps, motors, pipes, etc.) can be repaired, replaced, or upgraded on time and that there is enough money to pay for it.
Conduct a Sewer Feasibility Study.
To determine the possibility, potential cost, and funding options for a municipal sewer system to replace septic systems.
Create a municipal septic management district or a responsible management entity (RME).
To be responsible for the repair, replacement, and maintenance of homeowners’ septic systems. In this case, the municipality or the RME can pay for or organize the replacement of the failing system. The RME would then be responsible for the ongoing maintenance. The homeowner would pay a fee for this service, similar to the sewer fee homeowners pay on centralized treatment systems.
Create criteria to determine which neighborhoods should be connected to a centralized wastewater system.
Create indicators/criteria to determine when a neighborhood with failing septic systems might be a good candidate to connect to a centralized system and when it should consider different alternatives. For example, areas planned for additional growth with moderate densities might be better candidates for centralized systems. Areas not planned for growth and with very low densities, such as 1 unit per 20 or more acres, might be better suited to septic replacement.
Create a Community Wetland Review Board.
Comprised of community members who are appointed by a Township Board and involved in the wetland permitting process.
Create a Watershed Development Ordinance (WDO).
Establishes minimum standards for stormwater management, including floodplains, detention, soil erosion/sediment control, water quality treatment, and wetlands. Requires that a Watershed Development Permit be obtained for any development that is located in: a regulatory floodplain, a flood-prone area with drainage capacity, in an area that creates a wetland impact, etc.
Require performance bonds for new, noncentralized wastewater systems.
Requiring a performance bond for a decentralized system could provide the community with some guarantee of the effectiveness of the installed system. A performance bond or escrow account could be used to cover future operation and maintenance costs.
Monitor aquifers for saltwater intrusion.
To understand the impacts of salt water intrusion on water quality.
Develop and update regional water models.
Ensuring they account for future climate conditions.
Create a Drainage Ditch and Tributary Maintenance Plan / Drainage Improvement Feasibility Study.
Development of a maintenance plan for cleaning out drainage ditches and tributaries and identify areas that could be turned into bioswales for treatment of runoff, both of which will help reduce flooding and improve water quality. The Feasibility study could identify alternative discharge locations.
Create a stormwater interagency group.
To develop and implement a coordinated watershed based approach to update stormwater management plans.