Stormwater Roundtables
The Saw Mill River Coalition is conducting a special project for municipal boards, officials, & staff—The Stormwater Roundtables—to highlight the tools and techniques our municipal leaders can use to protect our rivers—water quality, habitat, and prevention of flooding. These Roundtables bring together members of each village or towns’ planning boards, conservation boards, zoning boards, trustees and council members—to hear from resource people and discuss how they can work together on site plan reviews to effectively manage stormwater. On January 18th, the second in the series of workshops was held on the topic of “Low Impact Development/Better Site Design Principles & Techniques—What they are and why they matter in abating local flooding and improving water quality.” For more information, call Lynn Oliva at (914) 375-2151.
This was the second in a series of stormwater workshops especially tailored to Westchester communities located in the Saw Mill River watershed and which have similar land use and development patterns. The first roundtable was held in May 2009 and attracted a diverse, standing-room-only audience of elected and appointed municipal officials. The Keynote speaker was Peter Q. Eschweiler, Chair of the Westchester County Flood Action Task Force and former County Planning Commissioner. Through the use of maps, aerial photographs, and statistics, attendees got a better understanding of the intermunicipal aspects of watersheds and stormwater management and why flooding has become such a problem. A panel of local Planning Board Chairs gave an overview of land use policies, current development projects, and stormwater management regulations with an eye toward intermunicipal impacts and coordination. The highlight of the workshop was when attendees broke into roundtables with people from their village or neighboring village or town and exchanged information and ideas about land use and stormwater abatement and also identified subjects of interest for future roundtables.
As a result of this initial meeting, the January Stormwater Roundtable provided an understanding of low impact development/better site design principles and techniques applicable to our area and how they can be incorporated into the review of local development projects and site plans. Additional information on Pros and Cons and Costs of Better Site models were presented. Members of Planning Boards, Zoning Boards of Appeals, Conservation Boards, Village Administrators, Mayors and Elected Officials engaged in discussions and participated in better site design planning exercises. Sandeep Mehrotra, Chair of the Hastings Environmental Commission and Vice President of Hazen & Sawyer P.C., Environmental Engineers and Scientists gave the keynote on Low Impact Development/Better Site Design Principles & Techniques – What they are and why they matter in abating local flooding and improving water quality.
To see Sandeep Mehrotra’s powerpoint presentation, click here.
If you are interested in attending future Stormwater Roundtable events, please contact annmarie@groundworkhv.org or lynn@groundworkhv.org.