It is critical to engage multiple municipal departments in planning and implementing a stormwater program and to pursue opportunities to integrate stormwater management with other public projects. Multipurpose projects can save money and yield many economic, environmental, and social benefits. You should consider integrating your efforts with other departments as one of the first steps in developing your stormwater management program, but you can also engage with other public programs and projects throughout your program’s evolution.
Promoting interconnected infrastructure
Due to the unique complexities of stormwater systems, stormwater management should reflect the interconnected nature of a community’s infrastructure. Stormwater infrastructure often intersects with assets managed by multiple municipal departments, such as public works, engineering, streets, highways, water and sewer, recreation, parks, planning, and economic development. A comprehensive asset management plan that recognizes and promotes interconnected infrastructure will facilitate projects that have multiple financial, social, and environmental benefits. Understanding when and where infrastructure projects will occur will allow you to integrate stormwater management considerations and secure the necessary funding to do so.
When considering a stormwater improvement project that serves multiple entities in a region or watershed, keep in mind that the project may need to comply with multiple different stormwater regulations and design standards.
Identifying potential partners
Taking the time to develop a long-term stormwater plan and developing relationships with fellow departments and partners helps clarify your purpose, direction, and needs. To help identify potential partners, become aware of sister departments that manage land or projects next to your stormwater assets, and stay up to date on capital improvement planning projects across all departments within your community.
Partnering with a sister department can save money because the municipality already owns and maintains the property; therefore, no land acquisition costs or easements are required. Moreover, the municipality may already perform long-term maintenance on the property, so green infrastructure maintenance costs, for example, may be reduced.
Refer to Developing and Administering a Dedicated Revenue Source and the additional Funding resources for more guidance on how to design multi-benefit projects that address stormwater management and other management goals.
Potential public partners to engage include:
- Water and wastewater utilities
- Transportation departments
- Parks and natural resources departments
- Business improvement districts
- Local executive offices (mayor, commissioner, etc.)
- Schools and universities
- Municipal planners and developers
- Sustainability agencies
- Operations and maintenance departments
Other important partners to engage include:
- Finance and funding partners
- Neighborhood and community associations
- Community outreach partners
- Local businesses
Working together to share goals and risks
Working with related municipal departments allows you to share goals and risks. It also allows you to take advantage of what each partner does best to achieve desired performance goals and objectives. For smaller communities in particular, an important early step is to coordinate project goals and benefits among internal municipal departments. Next, municipal stormwater programs should look to collaborate with external entities at the regional/watershed level. Multi-benefit stormwater projects can maximize regional, watershed-wide benefits; encourage cost-sharing; meet regulatory obligations; and promote widespread stakeholder support.
Achieving cost-effectiveness
Integrating stormwater management into capital improvement plans for transportation, parks, or other department infrastructure investments has the potential to lower overall project costs by:
- Reducing the need for independent project planning, design, environmental review, and construction.
- Coordinating work to avoid scheduling separate construction events on the same streets, thereby reducing overall costs and disruption to the public.
This approach can also encourage departments to share both capital and operation and maintenance costs. Moreover, multi-benefit projects can often compete for multiple sources of funding (e.g., transportation and water quality grant funds for a “complete streets” project).
Financial Planning and Fundraising
The planning effort provides critical input for developing a robust financial strategy by:
- Indicating what you need to account for when estimating program costs.
- Projecting when you will need funding for different purposes.
- Determining the right mix of funding sources that will align with your program needs.
Resources
| Article Description | Categories | categories_hfilter |
|---|---|---|
Urban Street Stormwater GuideAuthor: National Association of City Transportation Official | Developed/Updated on Date: June 2017 Web Link: https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-stormwater-guide/stormwater-streets/ The Urban Street Stormwater Guide provides cities with national best practices for sustainable stormwater management in the public right-of-way, including core principles about the purpose of streets, strategies for building inter-departmental partnerships around sustainable infrastructure, technical design details for siting and building bioretention facilities, and a visual language for communicating the benefits of such projects. The guide sheds light on effective policy and programmatic approaches to starting and scaling up green infrastructure, provides insight on innovative street design strategies, and proposes a framework for measuring performance of streets comprehensively. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
The Six Steps of Watershed PlanningAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: April 2, 2020 Web Link: https://cfpub.epa.gov/watertrain/moduleFrame.cfm?parent_object_id=2886 The goal of this module is to introduce a flexible framework for watershed planning and point out key factors that help make planning successful. | Communication and Outreach: Engaging Stakeholders, Funding: Integrating with Other Programs | engaging-stakeholders integrating-with-other-programs |
Teach, Learn, Grow: The Value of Green Infrastructure in SchoolyardsAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: 2017 Web Link: https://www.epa.gov/green-infrastructure/teach-learn-grow-value-green-infrastructure-schoolyards In this webcast, speakers from Green Schoolyards America, the Wichita State University Environmental Finance Center, and The Children & Nature Network discuss the multiple benefits of integrating green infrastructure practices into America’s schoolyards, and provide attendees with on-the-ground case studies and tools that can be used to create or enhance green schoolyard initiatives in their own communities. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
Storm Smart Schools: A Guide to Integrate Green Stormwater Infrastructure to Meet Regulatory Compliance and Promote Environmental LiteracyAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: 2017 EPA Region III assisted Newport News Public Schools (NNPS) and the City of Newport News with organizing a community-based design charrette at Sedgefield Elementary School. The charrette resulted in the creation of a conceptual site plan that uses green infrastructure practices to address stormwater issues at Sedgefield Elementary. NNPS incorporated outdoor learning into this process, which provided an opportunity to support environmental literacy for students of all ages. This guide serves several purposes. It:
| Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure, Public Education and Outreach | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure public-education-and-outreach |
Managing Wet Weather with Green Infrastructure Municipal Handbook: Green StreetsAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: December 2008 Web Link: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-10/documents/gi_munichandbook_green_streets_0.pdf Effective road drainage, translated as moving stormwater into the conveyance system quickly, has been a design priority while opportunities for enhanced environmental management have been overlooked, especially in the urban environment. Roads present many opportunities for green infrastructure application. One principle of green infrastructure involves reducing and treating stormwater close to its source. Urban transportation right-of-ways integrated with green techniques are often called “green streets.” Green streets achieve multiple benefits, such as improved water quality and more livable communities, through the integration of stormwater treatment techniques that use natural processes and landscaping. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
Harvesting the Value of Water: Stormwater, Green Infrastructure, and Real EstateAuthor: Urban Land Institute | Developed/Updated on Date: 2017 Web Link: https://uli.org/wp-content/uploads/ULI-Documents/HarvestingtheValueofWater.pdf This report seeks to address a gap in today’s research on stormwater management approaches. Although much has been written on the topic of green infrastructure and water management, most recent reports focus on stormwater policies or opportunities for capturing stormwater in the public realm. Fewer have focused on implications for private-sector real estate developers. This report brings together an analysis of the stormwater policy landscape and an introduction to a variety of real estate development projects that have responded to it. After outlining the reasons that stormwater management is important to cities, this report introduces a series of real estate case studies and a range of types of stormwater policies. The case studies come from locations across the United States and present both innovations in stormwater management and positive financial, operational, or design outcomes. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Operations: Green Infrastructure | integrating-with-other-programs green-infrastructure |
Greening the Streetscape: Complete Streets and Stormwater ManagementAuthor: Smart Growth America | Developed/Updated on Date: July 26, 2017 The challenge of managing stormwater is exacerbated by both increased rainfall and aging infrastructure. City governments, as well as residents who cannot afford to move, bear the brunt of the expense. Fortunately, stormwater management through Green Streets infrastructure offers promising solutions that can be carried out in conjunction with Complete Streets. When cities or private developers are retrofitting or redesigning streets, there is a confluence of opportunities to implement both stormwater improvement projects as well as Complete Streets network enhancements. Together, both Green Streets and Complete Streets initiatives work to improve the economic, equity, and environmental impacts of the street network all while creating safer, more vibrant streets. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
Green Infrastructure in Parks: A Guide to Collaboration, Funding, and Community EngagementAuthor: U.S. EPA Office of Water | Developed/Updated on Date: June 2017 Web Link: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-05/documents/gi_parksplaybook_2017-05-01_508.pdf This guide offers information on why partnerships between stormwater managers and parks managers can be beneficial and how to create such partnerships. The guide presents an overview of green infrastructure, describes practices that can be used to manage stormwater in parks, and identifies factors that influence the selection of appropriate green infrastructure practices. It includes recommendations on the types of projects that are most likely to attract positive attention, funding, and the widest range of benefits. The guide is designed to provide you with a stepwise approach for building relationships with potential partners and includes information on how to identify and engage partners, build relationships, involve the community, leverage funding opportunities, and identify green infrastructure opportunities. Case studies are included to illustrate the approaches. For those who wish to go deeper into a topic, the guide includes short descriptions and links to external resources that provide more detail on the material presented within. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure, Program Goals and Management: Long-Term Planning | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure long-term-planning |
City Parks, Clean Water: Making Great Places Using Green InfrastructureAuthor: Trust for Public Land | Developed/Updated on Date: 2016 Web Link: https://www.tpl.org/sites/default/files/City%20Parks%20Clean%20Water%20report_0.pdf This study shines a light on the successes and challenges of water-smart parks, looking at both the technologies and the political issues involved in using green infrastructure to make our cities more desirable, more livable, and more successful. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
City Green: Innovative Green Infrastructure Solutions for Downtown and Infill LocationsAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: 2016 Web Link: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-06/documents/city_green_0.pdf This publication is for local governments, private developers, and other stakeholders who help shape redevelopment projects in downtowns and infill locations where development has already occurred. It provides inspiration and helps identify successful strategies and lessons learned for overcoming common barriers to using green infrastructure in these contexts. The examples could encourage cities to adopt policies that would expand the number of projects incorporating similar green infrastructure approaches. Twelve case studies showcase projects from around the country that have overcome many common challenges to green infrastructure at sites surrounded by existing development and infrastructure. In these cases, space is at a premium, and soil conditions are often unknown or unsuitable for infiltration. The case studies help identify successful strategies and lessons learned for overcoming common problems. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
(Re)Building Downtown: A Guidebook for RevitalizationAuthor: Smart Growth America | Developed/Updated on Date: December 2015 Web Link: https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/app/legacy/documents/rebuilding-downtown.pdff (Re)Building Downtown: A Guidebook for Revitalization is a resource for local elected officials who want to reinvigorate and strengthen neighborhood centers of economy, culture, and history through a smart growth approach to development. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff |