(a) The City has determined that the lands and waters of the City are limited resources and that their quality is of primary importance in promoting and maintaining the health, safety, and general well-being of all life within its jurisdictional boundaries. The purpose of this chapter is to provide for the protection of surface and ground waters from contamination from urban storm water runoff as related to construction and development activities and post-construction storm water management and to protect the land and water resources of the City by establishing standards to achieve a level of soil erosion and storm water control that will minimize and abate degradation of land and water resources and damage to public and private property resulting from earth disturbing activities.
(b) The objectives of this chapter are:
(1) To assure that those involved in earth-disturbing activities minimize both soil erosion and the volume and rate of storm water runoff from their sites;
(2) Preserve to the extent practicable the natural drainage characteristics of the site and minimize the need to construct, repair, and replace enclosed, subsurface storm drain systems;
(3) Assure that storm water controls are incorporated into site planning and design at the earliest possible stage and that all storm water management practices are properly designed, constructed, and maintained;
(4) Prevent unnecessary stripping of vegetation and loss of soil and to promptly re- vegetate and stabilize the site following earth disturbing activities;
(5) Reduce the need for costly maintenance and repairs to roads, embankments, ditches, water resources, wetlands, and storm water management practices;
(6) Encourage the construction of storm water management practices that serve multiple purposes such as flood control, erosion control, fire protection, water quality protection, recreation, and habitat preservation;
(7) Preserve to the maximum extent practicable natural infiltration and groundwater recharge;
(8) To establish standards, principles, and procedures for the regulation of construction and development related earth disturbing activities that cause or may cause adverse water resource impacts resulting from storm water runoff and soil erosion;
(9) To provide homebuilders, developers, and landowners with consistent, technically feasible, and economically reasonable standards for erosion control and storm water management to promote the public health and safety and sound economic development in the City and throughout the Great Miami Watershed;
(10) To partially fulfill the City's responsibility as a local designated management agency to implement non-point source control activities set forth by the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission (MVRPC) and authorized under Section 208 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (P.L. 92-500, 86 Stat. 816), 33 USC 1288, as amended by the Clean Water Act of 1977 (P.L. 95-217, 91 Stat. 156);
(11) To comply with 40 C.F.R. Parts 9, 122, 123, and 124, referred to as NPDES Storm Water Phase II, and Ohio EPA's Phase II Storm Water Program which require designated communities, including the City to develop a storm water management program to address the quality of storm water runoff during and after earth disturbing activities; and,
(12) In accordance with Article XVIII, Section 3 of the Ohio Constitution which grants municipalities the legal authority to adopt rules to abate soil erosion and water pollution by soil sediments and Ohio R.C. Chapter 1511 which grants municipalities the legal authority to adopt sediment and erosion control practices.
(Ord. 5973. Passed 2-20-07.)