1. Water Quality: Any development which constructs new or replacement of more than 5,000 square feet of impervious area is required to provide  water quality treatment. The idea behind water quality treatment is to provide removal of suspended solids in stormwater in the most common storm events.
2. Channel Protection: Also known as the 1-year storm, this requires the development to detain the 1-year storm for a period of 24 hours to avoid the scouring and degradation of stream channels.
3. Detention: This requires the development to detain stormwater for the 2- through 25-year storm events to their pre-development flows.

Redevelopment projects present several unique challenges and opportunities. Among the most challenging hurdles that many redevelopment projects face is that of stormwater management – both water quality and water quantity (detention). Typically older developments, if they have any stormwater treatment at all, have an undersized facility that provides detention only. Current regulations in Gwinnett County, and across most of the metro Atlanta area, require those redeveloping parcels to provide the same level of stormwater management as is required for a greenfield development. In other words, the site, even if it is covered with buildings and parking lots, is viewed as though it is still in a forested, undisturbed state for stormwater management purposes. Gwinnett County, recognizing that redevelopment provides both economic and environmental advantages over greenfield development, is making development regulation changes to distinguish stormwater regulations between redevelopment and greenfield development.

Greenfield developments will continue to have to provide all three components of a stormwater facility (see table). A greenfield development is property still in an undeveloped state and has not had any impact on downstream properties.

Redevelopment projects, on the other hand, have impacted downstream properties as much as they likely can. Fully atoning for the sins of the past by providing the full host of stormwater management, while a noble idea, is not realistic on many projects. Redevelopment projects will have the opportunity to apply for a variance from providing channel protection and/or detention. Developed parcels, particularly those which are candidates for redevelopment, have already impacted their downstream channels. Providing channel protection won’t accomplish its intended purpose. Providing detention in an already urbanized zone only makes sense if there is existing flooding downstream during the more typical storm events. Otherwise it, too, doesn’t accomplish its intended purpose.

All projects will have to provide water quality, as required by state law. This makes sense, as water quality is an on-going impact in both greenfield development and existing developments. Unlike channel protection, stormwater runoff doesn’t reach a peak pollution point and then find a new stability or gradually reduce. Providing a measure of water quality on every project is the prudent thing to do, even if state law didn’t make it so.

This change to the Development Regulations will provide a significant new tool to redevelopment projects by addressing one of the most expensive and difficult challenges that a project faces. The variance, if approved, would allow a project to waive either all or a portion of channel protection and/or detention requirements. Once a variance is approved, the developer would pay a fee to Gwinnett County that would be utilized in the same fashion as fees from the County’s stream buffer variance. These fees are used in stream restoration projects throughout Gwinnett County. The fee will be calculated on the volume of stormwater management that is waived. (i.e. if 10,000 cubic feet of stormwater management is waived, multiply the 10,000 cubic feet by the cost per cubic foot to determine the fee amount.) The fee amount is currently under consideration and will eventually be set by the Board of Commissioners.

Gwinnett Village Community Improvement District and Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District conducted three case studies to assess the impact of the new regulations on sample redevelopment projects. In those cases, it was assumed that a variance would be sought for both the entirety of channel protection and detention. It was also assumed that the impervious area in the redevelopment scenario would be equal to its present condition. Two of the three cases were conducted on project sizes where many redevelopment projects are anticipated – sites in the half acre range. Typically, smaller redevelopment sites provide the most challenges for providing stormwater management due to the lack of land necessary to provide all three stormwater components. In most cases, stormwater management will be provided in an underground facility. These facilities can only be placed under parking lots or open space and reduce the buildable area on a site.

The variance can only be obtained for up to the existing impervious area on the project site. If a developer proposes to increase the impervious area beyond what presently exists, the developer will be responsible for providing all three stormwater components for the increased area. The developer will not be able to obtain a variance from the stormwater regulations for the increased impervious area and must maintain or improve the existing downstream conditions. The developer can still apply for a variance for the portion of the project up to the existing impervious area.

It is important to point out that these regulations only apply to the unincorporated portion of Gwinnett County. Projects within the cities located in Gwinnett County, should they chose to also follow this process, will have to adopt the changes into their development regulations. Since the cities represent some of the most urbanized portions of Gwinnett County, these regulation changes, if adopted, would enhance the ability for revitalization within their boundaries.

The bottom line is that these changes will provide a new tool for developers to add to their tool box to satisfy stormwater management requirements for redevelopment projects. This new tool will allow Gwinnett County to provide a significant advantage to developers looking to do redevelopment projects in the metro Atlanta area. At the same time, it will improve the environment by providing an additional funding source for improving the streams throughout the county. Of course, redevelopment projects themselves provide other significant environmental advantages over greenfield development by utilizing existing infrastructure and reducing consumption of undeveloped property.  Finally, it supports the significant economic impact that redevelopment projects provide by revitalizing the aging areas of the county while increasing employment and property values. This is one of those rare situations when new government regulations provide a win-win scenario for all involved. Gwinnett County should be applauded for its forward thinking and proactive efforts to address one of the biggest challenges that many projects face.

Taylor Anderson, PE, is President of Blue Landworks LLC. Blue Landworks provides civil engineering, land surveying and development consulting across the southeast. Taylor is the chairman of the committee assisting Gwinnett County in re-writing their development regulations on stormwater for redevelopment projects. The opinions expressed in this article are his and are not intended to represent those of Gwinnett County or the committee. A version of this article appeared on the Gwinnett Chamber’s Redevelopment Newsletter Website.

Residential News

The WSJ says we don’t need to get worked up about Monday’s home sales report. Meanwhile, the ENR reports that while there won’t be a recovery in housing in the immediate future, one person believes that we’ll see 15%+ growth towards the end of the year and into 2011. In line with the weak housing numbers, Tom Royce reports that the Builders Confidence Index has dropped. Finally, not surprisingly, the WSJ reports that the number of subprime mortgages currently with negative equity is 6 in 10 borrowers on both the national and Atlanta level.

Commercial News

CIRE magazine highlights market trends for all sorts of markets and Atlanta is mentioned several times. The AJC summarizes the Atlanta office market. Finally, the WSJ thinks the worst is over for the commercial real estate market.

GA DOT

Lots of news on the transportation front this week for Georgia. Maria Saporta says that if we can’t do transportation funding right, then don’t do it at all. The ABC reports that DOT is changing its accounting practices in an effort to get projects moving. B King at Terminal Station comments on both the Saporta article and the fact that the statewide sales tax to fund transportation is dead. Finally, it what seems to be a never ending string of articles on ranking traffic, this week’s flavor ranks Atlanta a modest 22nd worst, which is actually pretty good.

Gwinnett Airport Privatization

A story that will probably be in the news a lot this year is the possibility of the privatization of Gwinnett County’s Briscoe Field. The Board of Commissioners is proceeding with studying the topic and reports on this can be found here, here, here and here.

Miscellaneous

Poverty is rising in Atlanta’s suburbs. A small business snapshot in the southeast. A look at a potential huge mixed-use project on Atlanta’s south side.

BrandsMart USA store in Gwinnet County is LEED certified.

The 118,000 square foot retail building is LEED certified, sporting some of the most cutting-edge green building techniques available today. That includes a sophisticated rain harvesting system that provides water to not only the landscaping, but the building’s restroom lavatories.

Many other green aspects of the building are discussed in this article from the Gwinnett Business Journal. The Gwinnett Daily post also profiled the grand opening and the building in a recent article.

September 23, 2009 – SUGAR HILL, GEORGIA – Blue Landworks LLC, civil engineering and planning, announced that its owner and president, Taylor Anderson,PE, was selected as an alternate on the Engage Gwinnett committee representing the 5th district as a citizen member.

From Engage Gwinnett’s website:

Engage Gwinnett: Citizens Committee for the Future of Gwinnett County is a citizen-led initiative where committee members will spend approximately six months looking at the community’s needs for current and future government services and proposing funding strategies to pay for those services over the next five years.

“Engage Gwinnett’s mission is critical to identifying ways that will not only resolve the financial questions that the County must answer, but maintain Gwinnett County’s reputation as a succesful, thriving community to live, work and play,” said Mr. Anderson.  “Being selected to the committee is a tremendous opportunity to help in that effort. I look forward to the challenge.”

Mr. Anderson’s work in the southeast includes a diverse mix of clients and locales. With experience in new civil site land development to redevelopment projects and serving clients from the north Georgia mountains to the North Carolina coast, Blue Landworks is ready to tackle not only today’s challenges, but the uncertainty of tomorrow.

CONTACT:

Blue Landworks
Taylor Anderson, PE – President
(678) 551-BLUE
media@bluelandworks.com
bluelandworks.com

February 18, 2009 – SUGAR HILL, GEORGIA – Blue Landworks LLC, civil engineering and planning, announced that its owner and president, Taylor Anderson,PE, was appointed by the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners to the Development Advisory Committe. He was selected as the Professional Engineer representative on the committee that advises the County on all aspects of land development. Mr. Anderson’s appointment is a two year term.

“The selection to represent the engineering community on the committee is a great honor,” said Mr. Anderson. “I look forward to serving the citizens of the County and advising the Board of Commissioners and Gwinnett County staff. The appointment fits right in with our business philosophy – providing the highest quality service.”

Mr. Anderson’s work in the southeast includes a diverse mix of clients and locales. With experience in new civil site land development to redevelopment projects and serving clients from the north Georgia mountains to the North Carolina coast, Blue Landworks is ready to tackle not only today’s challenges, but the uncertainty of tomorrow.

CONTACT:

Blue Landworks
Taylor Anderson, PE – President
(678) 551-BLUE
media@bluelandworks.com
bluelandworks.com