Village Passes Tighter Stormwater Law

by Kathy Savolt -

After several months of discussion and changes to the proposed new stormwater law, the Board of Trustees (BOT) passed the new legislation at their March 23^rd meeting.  This new law (see HERE) tightens the requirement for stormwater management and also moves this code language into Chapter 342 (Zoning).  It was previously in a separate chapter and often overlooked.

Complicated Subject = Complicated Language

Written by the Village Attorney and H2M, the Village’s consulting Engineer, it is clear that most non-engineers have difficulty understanding stormwater laws.  The BOT, whose objective was to make the code more stringent, struggled with understanding the technical language and whether or not it achieved their goal.

To that end, H2M analyzed the proposed legislation against the current Mamaroneck Town code (see HERE). The analysis found that the Town’s code was tougher than the Village’s current code and with the revisions, the codes are similar.

Trustee Nora Lucas found that comparison to be very helpful, as was a test case where a project was reviewed under both the current code and the proposed code.  The project did not meet the proposed code indicating the changes met the BOT’s goal of making stormwater management more rigorous.

Lucas suggested a “plain language” guide be developed to accompany the new code which must also conform to the New York State Stormwater Design Manual.

Anything More Stringent is Good

During the Public Hearing, residents Bea Cerasoli and Sue Deshensky both admitted not understanding everything in the code but both agreed that anything that was more stringent was good.  The BOT passed the new law with a 5-0 vote.

Additional Work Needed

Trustee Lucas also noted that the revised code did not fully address the addition of fill or the presence of steep slopes.  She indicated that further revisions will be coming.