This chapter shall be known as the "Newtown Township Stormwater Management Ordinance" or interchangeably, "Chapter 143, Stormwater Management, of the Code of the Township of Newtown."
A. 
Inadequate management of increased rate and volume of stormwater runoff from land development increases stream flows and velocities, contributes to erosion and sedimentation, overtaxes the carrying capacity of existing streams and storm sewers, greatly increases the cost of public facilities to convey and manage stormwater, undermines floodplain management and flood reduction efforts in upstream and downstream communities, upsets the hydrologic cycle, particularly the reduced infiltration, and threatens public health, safety and welfare.
B. 
Inadequate planning and management of stormwater runoff can harm surface water resources by changing the natural hydrologic patterns, accelerating stream flows (which increase scour and erosion of stream beds and stream banks, thereby elevating sedimentation), destroying aquatic habitat, and elevating aquatic pollutant concentrations and loadings such as sediments, nutrients, heavy metals, and pathogens.
C. 
Groundwater resources are also impacted through loss of recharge.
D. 
A comprehensive program of stormwater management, including minimization of impacts of development, redevelopment, and activities causing accelerated erosion and loss of natural infiltration, is fundamental to the public health, safety, and welfare, and the protection of the environment.
E. 
Stormwater is an important natural resource that replenishes groundwater supplies and baseflow of streams through infiltration, which also protects and maintains surface water quality.
F. 
Negative effects of stormwater runoff can be minimized by using project designs that maintain the natural hydrologic regime and sustain high water quality, infiltration, stream baseflow, and aquatic ecosystems. The most cost-effective and environmentally advantageous way to manage stormwater runoff is through nonstructural project design that minimizes impervious surfaces and sprawl, avoids sensitive areas (i.e., stream buffers, floodplains, steep slopes), and considers topography and soils to maintain the natural hydrologic regime.
G. 
Public education on the control of pollution from stormwater is an essential component of successful stormwater management.
H. 
Federal and state regulations require certain municipalities, including Newtown Township, to implement a program of stormwater controls. These municipalities are required to obtain a permit for stormwater discharges from their municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).
I. 
Nonstormwater discharges to a municipal separate storm sewer systems can contribute to pollution of waters of the commonwealth by Newtown Township.
The purpose of this chapter is to promote the public health, safety, and welfare within Newtown Township by maintaining the natural hydrologic regime and minimizing the impacts described herein through provisions designed to:
A. 
Promote alternative land development and building construction designs and layouts that minimize the negative impacts on surface and groundwater from stormwater.
B. 
Promote nonstructural best management practices (BMPs) for stormwater management.
C. 
Minimize increases in stormwater runoff volume.
D. 
Minimize impervious surfaces that encourage stormwater runoff.
E. 
Manage rate and volume of stormwater runoff, erosion and sedimentation, and infiltration of stormwater at its source by regulating activities that cause stormwater runoff problems.
F. 
Provide review procedures and performance standards for stormwater planning and management.
G. 
Utilize and preserve existing natural drainage systems as much as possible.
H. 
Manage stormwater impacts close to the runoff source, through reliance on natural drainage processes and discouragement of structural control measures.
I. 
Focus on infiltration of stormwater to maintain stream base flow, to prevent degradation of surface and groundwater quality, and to otherwise protect water resources.
J. 
Protect steam base flows and quality of streams and watercourses.
K. 
Meet legal water quality requirements under federal and state law, including regulations at 25 Pa. Code § 93.4a, requiring protection and maintenance of "existing uses" and maintenance of the level of water quality to support those uses in all streams, and the protection and maintenance of water quality in "special protection" streams.
L. 
Address the quality and quantity of stormwater discharges from land development sites.
M. 
Provide standards to meet NPDES MS4 permit requirements.
N. 
Implement an illicit discharge detection and elimination program that addresses nonstormwater discharges into municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s).
O. 
Preserve the flood-carrying capacity of streams.
P. 
Prevent accelerated scour, erosion and sedimentation of stream channels.
Q. 
Provide performance standards and design criteria based on watershed-wide stormwater management planning.
R. 
Provide proper operation and maintenance of all permanent stormwater management facilities and BMPs within Newtown Township.
S. 
Protect existing water quality by prohibiting nonstormwater discharges to ground surfaces for both existing and proposed developments.
Newtown Township is empowered to regulate land use activities that affect stormwater runoff and surface and groundwater quality and quantity by the authority of:
A. 
Stormwater Management Act, Act 167, as amended, 32 P.S. § 680.1 et seq. (hereinafter referred to as "the Act" or "Act 167");
B. 
Second Class Township Code, 53 P.S. § 6501 et seq.;
C. 
Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, Act 247, as amended, 53 P.S. § 10101 et seq. (hereinafter referred to as "the MPC").
A. 
This chapter shall apply to all areas of Newtown Township.
B. 
All regulated activities and all activities that may affect stormwater runoff, including but not limited to land development, redevelopment, and earth disturbance activity located within the Township, are subject to regulation by this chapter.
C. 
This chapter contains stormwater management performance standards and design criteria that are necessary from a watershed-wide perspective. Local stormwater management regulations and design criteria (e.g., inlet spacing, inlet type, collection system design and details, outlet structure design, etc.) may be found in other chapters of the Township Code, including Subdivision and Land Development,[1] and applicable federal and state regulations.
[1]
Editor's Note: See Ch. 148, Subdivision and Land Development.
A. 
A stormwater management exemption shall not relieve a landowner, developer or other applicant for a land use or building permit from implementing requirements of other applicable Township regulations or from implementing such measures as are necessary to protect public health, safety, and property.
B. 
An exemption shall not relieve a landowner, developer or other applicant from complying with the special requirements for watersheds draining to identified high quality (HQ) or exceptional value (EV) waters or any other current or future state or Township water quality protection requirements.
C. 
If a drainage problem is documented or known to exist downstream of, or is expected from the proposed activity, then the Township may withdraw exemptions listed in Table 143-5.1 and require the applicant to comply with all requirements of this chapter.
D. 
Even though an applicant may be exempt, he is not relieved from complying with other Township chapters or regulations.
E. 
General exemptions.
(1) 
Table 143-5.1 summarizes the exemptions from certain provisions of this chapter. Exemptions are for the items noted in Table 143-5.1 only, and shall not relieve a landowner, developer or other applicant from other applicable sections of this chapter.
(2) 
Any regulated activity that is exempt from some provisions of this chapter is exempt only from those provisions.
(3) 
If development is to take place in phases, the developer is responsible for implementing the requirements of this chapter as the impervious cover/earth disturbance threshold is met.
(4) 
The date of the Township enactment of these provisions shall be the starting point from which to consider tracts as "parent tracts" in which future subdivisions and respective impervious area and earth disturbance computations shall be cumulatively considered.
(5) 
Exemption shall not relieve a landowner, developer or applicant from implementing such measures as are necessary to protect health, safety, and property. For example:
(a) 
If a property owner proposes a one-hundred-fifty-square-foot shed after adoption of the Township stormwater management chapter, that property owner would be exempted from water quality and quantity requirements of the chapter as noted in Table 143-5.1 of the chapter. If, at a later date, the property owner proposes to construct a four-hundred-ninety-nine-square-foot room addition, the applicant would be required to comply with the requirements for the Simplified Method for the full 649 square feet of impervious cover created since adoption of the Township chapter. If an additional seven-hundred-square-foot swimming pool/patio is proposed later, the property owner would be required to implement the full stormwater quantity and quality control submission requirements of this chapter for the total 1,349 square feet of additional impervious surface added to the original property since adoption of the Township chapter.
Table 143-5.1
Exemptions
Proposed Impervious Surface
Earth Disturbance
Requirement
Type of Project
0 to 499 square feet
500 to 999 square feet
1,000+ square feet
0 to 4,999 square feet disturbance
5,000 square feet to < 1 acre
> 1 acre
SWM site plan requirements
Development Redevelopment
Exempt
Not exempt Simplified approach
Not exempt
Exempt
Modified1
Not exempt
Nonstructural project design
Development Redevelopment
Exempt
Not exempt Simplified approach
Not exempt
Exempt
Not exempt
Not exempt
Infiltration volume requirements
Development Redevelopment
Exempt
Not exempt Simplified approach
Not exempt
Exempt
Exempt
Not exempt
Water quality requirements
Development Redevelopment
Exempt
Not exempt Simplified approach
Not exempt
Modified2
Modified2
Not exempt
Stream bank erosion requirements
Development Redevelopment
Exempt
Not exempt Simplified approach
Not exempt
Exempt
Exempt
Not exempt
Stormwater peak rate control and management districts
Development Redevelopment
Exempt
Exempt
Not exempt
Exempt
Not exempt
Not exempt
Erosion and sediment pollution control
Must comply with Title 25, Chapter 102 of the Pa. Code and other applicable state and Township codes, including the Clean Streams Law.
Not exempt
NOTES:
•
"Proposed impervious surface" in Table 143-5.1 includes new, additional, or replacement impervious surface/cover as part of development or redevelopment.
•
Exempt: Exempt from specified provision only; SWM site plan submission may still be required if other provisions are applicable.
•
Modified1: Modified SWM site plan need only consist of those items requested by the Township Engineer and related supportive material needed to determine compliance with the intent of this chapter.
•
Modified2: Modified SWM site plan need only consist of items and related material requested by the Township Engineer
•
Simplified approach: Must comply with provisions of Appendix B of this chapter.[1]
•
Redevelopment: See alternate stormwater peak rate control criteria.
[1]
Editor's Note: Said appendix is included as an attachment to this chapter.
F. 
Exemptions for specific activities.
(1) 
Use of land for gardening or growing vegetables for home consumption.
(2) 
Agriculture when operated in accordance with a conservation plan, nutrient management plan, or erosion and sedimentation control plan approved by the Delaware County Conservation District, including activities such as growing crops, rotating crops, tilling soil, and grazing animals. For agriculture with an approved conservation plan, installation of new or expansion of existing farmsteads, animal housing, waste storage, and production areas having impervious surfaces that result in a net increase in impervious surface of between 500 and 999 square feet shall apply the simplified approach, and net increases in impervious surface of greater than or equal to 1,000 square feet shall be subject to the provisions of this chapter.
(3) 
Forest management operations which are following the Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) management practices contained in its publication "Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control Guidelines for Forestry," are operating under an approved erosion and sedimentation plan, and must comply with the stream buffer requirements in § 143-17C.
(4) 
Repaving without reconstruction.
(5) 
Emergency exemption: Emergency maintenance work performed for the protection of public health, safety, and welfare.
(a) 
A written description of the scope and extent of any emergency work performed shall be submitted to Township no later than two calendar days after the commencement of the activity.
(b) 
If Township finds that the work is not an emergency, then the work shall cease immediately, until a stormwater site-plan in accordance with this chapter is submitted and approved by the Township.
(6) 
Maintenance exemption: Any maintenance to an existing stormwater management system made in accordance with plans and specifications approved by the Township Engineer.
Any provision of the Newtown Township Code or other chapter resolution or regulation that is inconsistent with any of the provisions of this and other federal and state regulations with respect to stormwater management are hereby preempted to the extent of the other provision is less protective of public health, safety and welfare, and the environment than the provisions of this chapter.
Should any section or provision of this chapter be declared invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of any of the remaining provisions of this chapter.
A. 
Approvals issued pursuant to this chapter do not relieve a landowner, developer or other applicant of the responsibility to secure required permits or approvals for activities regulated by any other applicable law or regulation.
B. 
To the extent that this chapter imposes more rigorous or stringent requirements for stormwater management, the specific requirements contained in this chapter shall be followed.
C. 
Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to affect any of Newtown Township's requirements regarding stormwater matters that do not conflict with the provisions of this chapter, such as local stormwater management design criteria (e.g., inlet spacing, inlet type, collection system design and details, outlet structure design, etc.). The requirements of this chapter shall supersede any conflicting requirements in other Township regulations.