Guide to promoting low-impact development

A new resource for local governments aims to help promote more low-impact development.

The guide includes a series of tools, including Best Management Practice factsheets, information about incentive programs, and other resources.

It also includes case studies of great work by jurisdictions within the Puget Sound region to encourage low-impact development.

Techniques like using porous concrete or installing rain gardens can help filter and clean stormwater that runs off roads and rooftops, improving the health of Puget Sound and the region’s many rivers, lakes and streams.

One example is Tacoma’s Cheney Stadium site, which includes six acres of permeable pavement, an infiltration trench, three bioretention rain gardens, sustainable landscaping, and seven acres of new tree canopy.

The goal of the guidebook is to help local governments encourage developers to incorporate effective low-impact development approaches and go above and beyond existing stormwater permit requirements.

This guide is a joint venture of the Washington State Department of Commerce and Puget Sound Regional Council, funded by the EPA’s National Estuary Program through the Puget Sound Partnership and the Washington State Department of Ecology.

You can find the guidebook here:  Incentivizing low-impact development: Guidance for local jurisdictions