Borough Council rejects adopting program mandated by state
By: Courtney Gross
Princeton Borough could soon be subject to fines and penalties if it does not quickly adopt stormwater regulations mandated by the state Department of Environmental Protection that are a year past due.
The Princeton Borough Council failed to approve an ordinance at its meeting last week which would have established stormwater compliance regulations for major and minor residential and commercial developments. Council members said they did not adopt the regulations, voting 4-2 against the measure, because the procedures seemed too onerous for homeowners.
"People should not be discouraged to make small renovations to their homes," Councilman David Goldfarb said of the ordinance. "It’s the proverbial fly and sledgehammer situation."
Currently, borough Engineer Carl Peters said, the municipality has no stormwater regulations for small developments, such as an addition to a single residence. Some of this development, Mr. Peters added, can contribute to flooding that has plagued some homeowners throughout the Princeton area.
"We don’t have any control," Mr. Peters said of smaller developments. "We get a number of people coming into the office every year, and they say my neighbor put an addition on and now I have flooding."
Under the rejected ordinance, for any development that disturbs less than one acre but increases impervious surface by 200 square feet, the stormwater regulations would kick in. The regulations would require a homeowner meet guidelines for erosion control, groundwater recharge and runoff requirements.
The state requires that stormwater regulations apply to development disturbance greater than one acre, which was also within the rejected ordinance.
In some cases, borough officials said, the proposed regulations posed too great a burden on residents. For instance, officials said, some residents would have had to abide by the regulations if they were constructing a driveway, which could lead to the need to hire expensive professionals.
Based on building permit records for the last five years, the ordinance would have applied to approximately 71 percent of development at one- and two-family dwellings, Mr. Peters said. The ordinance could have mitigated a large amount of runoff and flooding, he added.
Because the borough has greater density than some of the surrounding municipalities, Mr. Peters said he chose 200 square feet as a threshold to capture a significant amount of development.
In addition to the stormwater ordinance, the state mandates municipalities adopt regulations for collecting yard waste, feeding wild animals and for pet waste disposal. The council adopted these ordinances unanimously on March 27.
Other municipalities in the region, such as West Windsor and Princeton Township, have already adopted their stormwater regulations.
Councilwoman Barbara Trelstad, who voted to approve the ordinance, said that everyone should have to take some action to mitigate stormwater impacts. As flooding becomes more frequent in the Princeton area, she added, it has become increasingly important for the borough to address additional development.
"The more we build out, the more we resurface, the more stormwater," Ms. Trelstad said. "Stormwater is an issue. … This just delays us further."
The state regulations are intended to reduce pollution and mitigate flooding. The regulations, Mr. Peters said, are also meant to comply with the federal Clean Water Act.
According to the 2006 annual report from the DEP, initial compliance with the new stormwater regulations adopted in 2004 had been "relatively low." Out of 559 municipalities that must adopt a stormwater control ordinance, only 71 percent have done so, according to the report.
The DEP is now implementing an education and outreach program, the report states. Since the education program’s inception, the report states, the department has seen greater compliance with the regulations.
The deadline to adopt a stormwater control ordinance was April 2006 for most municipalities, according to the DEP.
Barry Chalofsky, chief of the DEP bureau of nonpoint pollution control, said the department is currently concentrating on municipalities that have not adopted the stormwater control ordinance’s precursor a stormwater control plan. A municipality would have a year from a plan’s adoption, he added, to approve an ordinance.
The Regional Planning Board of Princeton adopted a plan in March 2005.
But getting behind schedule, Mr. Chalofsky said, could result in a $15,000 fine.
"We do have a fair number (of municipalities) that have not taken the message seriously or are not doing their jobs," Mr. Chalofsky said. "The bottom line is they got to get it done."
Although Princeton Borough staff are back at the drawing board, they said it should take several months to get another version of the ordinance before the council. Mr. Peters said he would be taking a more intense look at how the borough should respond to development on smaller lots.
Because they have been actively pursuing the adoption of the stormwater ordinance, officials said they hoped the borough would not be subject to state fines.