Impervious Parking Requirements Now in Effect

If you are building or developing in Duplin, Bladen, or Sampson County or other rural areas in the state you need to be aware that starting April 1st 2009 new regulations went into effect that will place limitations on the percent of impervious areas for vehicular parking areas. For this rule to apply the development project must contain at least one acre of “vehicular surface area” which, by definition in the statute, includes: “means of ingress and egress to the area where passenger vehicles are parked” and “any median, traffic island, or other traffic control device or structure contained wholly within the vehicular parking area. The Division of Water Quality has prepared a web-based Interactive Map for Stormwater Permitting Areas to help development activities determine whether they are covered by a post-construction permitting program or other stormwater permitting requirements. By using the Interactive Map system, you should be able to determine whether an area, or an address, in question must comply with the provisions of the new parking surface statute. Basically, if the area in question is covered by any color other than gray, the area must meet other state or federal stormwater requirements and is exempt from the new statute provisions. However, if the area is covered by a gray overlay, the requirements of this new statute apply. For additional information about this new rule and the overall implementation click here.