New Stormwater Rules Hit Homeowners

It’s going to be a lot harder to build a backyard shed or patio in Doylestown, at least for the foreseeable future.

Against their own wishes, Doylestown Borough Council members on Monday night gritted their teeth and approved an ordinance that will require homeowners to take what might be considered drastic steps to deal with stormwater runoff for even the smallest of home projects.

They didn’t have much choice; the state of Pennsylvania is requiring all 22 municipalities in the Neshaminy Creek watershed to approve the ordinance, council president Det Ansinn said.

So they did, by a vote of 8-1. Council member David Laustsen voted no.

“It puts an unreasonable burden upon people who want to put a little brick patio in their backyard or whatever, a fire pit,” Laustsen said. “I think this is a case of bureaucrats gone wild.”

The other council members agreed but argued that Doylestown would be better off approving the ordinance and then working with the state to add back in an exemption for small home projects. If the borough doesn’t approve the ordinance, the state could cut off certain funding streams, they said.

“It’s a pretty big stick,” Ansinn said, referring to the financial penalties that could hit municipalities that balk at the new rules.

After approving the ordinance, the council then approved a second resolution, voicing its support for a small project exemption to be written back into the ordinance. They plan to send that statement to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Doylstown-area contingent of state lawmakers.

The borough’s professional staff, including manager John Davis and assistant manager Phil Ehlinger, have been working on the stormwater issue for months, as have planners from surrounding municipalities.

Many of the other municipalities that also are required to adopt the ordinance had planned to vote against it, but changed their minds and decided to approve it and then lobby for the changes they want, Ehlinger said.

“Many did decide to go ahead with it, with the understanding that other remedies will be pursued,” he said.

The new rules will require homeowners to take steps they’ve never had to take before, from planting trees to installing stormwater rentention basins, to offset the environmental impact of adding impervious surfaces to their properties.

The rationale behind the ordinance - preserving rainfall and sending it back into the ground to recharge underground aquifers - is sound, many on the council argued. But expanding the rules to include nearly every home improvement project is too extreme, they said.

Council member Susan Madian, who chairs the borough’s zoning and planning committee, called the ordinance “overly restrictive” on small home projects.

The borough has no problem with the restrictions on large scale developments, such as new housing projects, Davis said – not that many of those could be proposed in Doylestown, which is almost completely built out.

So what do the changes mean for property owners who might have hoped to add a patio or shed this summer?

"Phil is going to keep working on the issue," Davis said after the meeting. "We'll have to see how it all shakes out."