Using Smart Growth Techniques as Stormwater Best Management Practices

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Communities across the country are adopting smart growth strategies to reach environmental, community, and economic goals. The environmental goals include water benefits that accrue when development strategies use compact development forms, a mix of uses, better use of existing infrastructure, and preservation of critical environmental areas. While the water quality and stormwater benefits of smart growth are widely acknowledged, there has been little explicit regulatory recognition of these benefits to date.

Regulations under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) stormwater program offer a structure for considering the water quality benefits associated with smart growth techniques. Compliance with federal, state, and local stormwater programs revolves around the use of “Best Management Practices,” or BMPs, to manage stormwater. Given the "built in " water benefits of smart growth at the site, neighborhood and watershed levels, smart growth techniques and policies are emerging as BMPs to manage stormwater runoff over the life of development and redevelopment projects.

The goal of this document is to help communities that have adopted smart growth policies and plans recognize the water benefits of those smart growth techniques and suggest ways to integrate those policies into stormwater planning and compliance. Taking credit for the work a community is already doing can be a low-cost and practical approach to meeting water quality goals and regulatory commitments. Examples of smart growth techniques and approaches covered in this publication include:

Regional planning
Infill development
Redevelopment policies
Special development districts (e.g., transit oriented development and brownfields redevelopment)
Tree and canopy programs
Parking policies to reduce the number of spaces needed or the footprint of the lot
"Fix It First" infrastructure policies
Smart growth street designs
Stormwater utilities

To request printed copies of this report, contact EPA's National Service Center for Environmental Publications at (800) 490-9198 or e-mail at nscep@bps-lmit.com and ask for publication number EPA 231-B-05-002.

For more information on the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) stormwater program, visit the NPDES homepage.

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