A recent effort to adopt uniform Low Impact Development (LID) standards is gaining acceptance. However, what might come as a surprise to some, these are not the “usual suspects” but an effort driven by the development community.

Led by the Kitsap Home Builders Foundation (KHBF), this proposal has garnered support and remarkable alliances from environmentalists, local governments, Suquamish Tribe, scientist Dr. Christopher May, and Kitsap Citizens for Responsible Planning members Tom Donnelly and Charlie Burrow.

The KHBF, a non-profit 501 (c) (3), was borne from the successful Build A Better Kitsap/BUILT GREEN program developed in the mid 90-‘s by the Home Builders Association of Kitsap County (HBA), an industry led environmentally-friendly building and development program that has since been emulated throughout the state and country.

“I’m very excited about the diverse support we’ve received,” said Art Castle, secretary of the KHBF and Executive Vice President of the HBA. “The HBA cosponsored several Low Impact Development workshops since 2001 and regularly requested that the development of standards be enacted so developers can utilize these innovative solutions.”

With significant development over the last fifty years has come more intensive land use. Filling in of wetlands and forests cut down to pave and build over has influenced aquatic habitat with seasonal high and low flows and disrupted the complex hydrology necessary to maintain a properly functioning ecosystem.

Increases in impervious surface areas from residential and commercial development alters runoff and causes delivery of sediments and other pollutants into waterways. Many of these water bodies are 303(d) listed by the state in violation of water quality standards. 11 streams in Kitsap County are so polluted with bacteria that the Health District advises the public to avoid contact with them and 4.99 shoreline acres are restricted and 108 shoreline miles are prohibited Commercial Shellfish Growing Areas.

As stormwater travels over impervious surfaces, pollutants (heavy metals, oil, organic toxins, bacteria, nutrients, and sediment) wash into our waterways. In fact, polluted runoff is the single largest threat to water quality in the country. Standard stormwater measures have created maintenance issues for local government and homeowners, and have not adequately integrated stormwater management with either development or the environment. The pending federal NPDES stormwater requirements will result in significantly higher development costs and therefore risk failure to be adopted.

LID is a sustainable stormwater management strategy that controls water at the source — both rainfall and storm water runoff — known as ‘source-control’ technology. This “decentralized system” distributes storm water across a site to replenish groundwater supplies rather than a system of storm drain pipes and channelized networks that control water downstream in a large – often expensive to maintain - storm water management facility.

“In addition to protecting natural resources, LID techniques are easier and less expensive to maintain than traditional stormwater facilities and offer one effective, practical alternative to deal with stormwater that should be available,” explained Castle.

The LID approach differs significantly from conventional conveyance systems by promoting the highest and best use of intrinsic landforms and built structures that both distribute storm water and collect rainwater. The global goal of LID is to engineer a site with small-scale treatment techniques that achieve the hydrologic function equivalent to predevelopment conditions.

The increased interest in the use of LID is in response to burgeoning infrastructure costs of development projects, more rigorous environmental regulations, and the cumulative impacts on our natural resources due to inevitable growth.

While progressive regional developers recognize the benefits of LID, unfortunately, local permitting agencies have fallen behind the curve and failed to define and adopt uniform LID standards. Obstacles due to exceptions to existing regulations and codes required on a project-by-project basis in the administrative and permitting process are a huge discouragement and disincentive for developers who recognize the value, both ecologically and financially, of LID.

“Ironically, it was the Tribe, in their recent construction of the Clearwater casino, to use the State Ecology’s 2001 Stormwater manual standards and the only project in Kitsap County to do so,” remarked Rob Purser, Fisheries Director for the Suquamish Tribe.

The Tribe has committed to partner with the KHBF in their more recent proposal to secure funding under the state Department of Ecology’s EPA 319 Nonpoint Pollution grant program. If awarded, grant money will be available in June 2005.

The project will work with Kitsap County, and the four cities to develop and implement a uniform set of LID standards into local permitting processes while building the foundation to provide technical resources and guidance for developers. This is a significant step towards advancing state-of-the-art stormwater management while assuring developers that their projects can be permitted countywide using uniform standards

Poulsbo Councilwoman Kathryn Quade, outspoken in her support of LID and the more recent efforts of the KHBF, added, “I believe that by providing incentives, education, and awareness of LID, we can ready local citizens and builders with the support and skills to make informed decisions and take responsible actions. I know there will be challenges and require ongoing education of City staff and Council, who have not been exposed to LID strategies, to see the benefits – both economic and environmental. If we don’t ever plan, if we never incent, we won’t get there.”

The proposal includes a Public Education campaign to educate industry professionals, residents, and property owners on the adverse water quality effects of pollutants from lawns, development impacts, stormwater runoff and the remedies LID techniques offer.

The program will borrow heavily from EPA sponsored national guidance manuals on the LID approach. The KHBF project will tailor this guidance to the general Puget Sound regional environment and more specifically to the Kitsap County environment with additional modification based on lessons learned from the Green Cove Basin Pilot Project in Thurston County. That effort, while completed after four years in 2001, was criticized in large part due to its failure to involve developers earlier and more thoroughly.

“I really believe that an industry-led effort will result in more open use and acceptance by both the development community and environmental groups,” concluded Castle.