<br />January 27, 2025 Work Session – Item 2 <br />improvement standards, the City of Eugene Stormwater Management Manual adopted by the City Manager sets out the design guidelines and implementation requirements for the various types of stormwater facilities. Staff are working on updates to the Stormwater Management Manual so it will be in alignment with the proposed code amendments and the NPDES permit. Consistent with the City Code, the Eugene Planning Commission provided an initial review of the ordinance proposing to amend the Chapter 9 stormwater standards. The Planning Commission held a work session on September 10, 2024, a public hearing on September 24, 2024, and deliberated on November 12, 2024. The Eugene Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend that the Eugene City Council adopt the proposed stormwater development standards land use code amendments as included in Attachment A to this AIS. The Planning Commission received public testimony from several parties with some concerns and questions about the proposed amendments. The proposed code amendments have been revised in several ways to respond to concerns raised by the public while keeping the proposed amendment in alignment with the NPDES Permit. Public testimony raised concerns regarding the proposal to remove an existing exemption that applies to building permits for a single unit dwelling or duplex if the construction is located on a lot that was created by a land division approved prior to March 1, 2014. This exemption was added to the land use code when the City strengthened its requirements for stormwater quality treatment facilities in 2014. For more than ten years, this exemption has allowed such construction on those pre-2014 lots to take place without meeting current code requirements for facilities to treat the quality of stormwater runoff. Some testimony challenges the proposal to discontinue that exemption, asserting that developers of these pre-2014 lots have a “vested right” to continue such residential construction on those lots without meeting today’s stormwater quality treatment facilities. Staff provided the Planning Commission with a memo that responded to this testimony in detail. See Attachments C and D to this AIS. One consideration is an existing State Law, ORS 92.040, that applies a 10-year “vesting” period to the development of subdivision lots. It allows the developer of a subdivision lot to choose to build to the code standards that were in place on the date the subdivision was approved instead of those in place when the building permit is submitted, so long as the building permit is submitted within 10-years of the subdivision’s approval. Therefore, under State Law, if development on a lot in a subdivision takes place more than 10 years after the City’s subdivision approval, that development must meet current development standards. The discontinuance of the 2014 exemption from the City’s code would be consistent with this state law, since the City’s exemption has now been in place for more than 10 years. Staff are concerned that extending the 2014 exemption could be inconsistent with the requirements of the 2021 NPDES permit, which must be fully implemented in 2025. For this reason, the City is not proposing to extend the 2014 exemption. The NPDES stormwater permit requires the City to apply water quality standards to new development and redevelopment projects that create or replace 1,000 square feet of impervious surface, with some exemptions. An exemption for lots created before 2014 is not one of the NPDES permit exceptions. The NPDES permit and the proposed Code amendments provide some exemptions and off-site alternatives to the construction of on-site stormwater facilities when there are hydrologic, geologic or land use <br /> CC Agenda Page 2