Escambia County delays vote on updated stormwater design standards after engineers, builders clash

Escambia County commissioners on Feb. 29 postponed a public hearing on proposed changes to county stormwater design standards after engineers, builders and community members disagreed about whether to adopt NOAA Atlas 14 rainfall tables and a new 6-inch freeboard requirement for ponds.

The proposed ordinance, developed by county staff and a technical advisory committee (PAC), would update the county esign manual to use the most recent rainfall data and add a 6-inch freeboard safety margin and a required pond drawdown/recovery requirement. County engineering staff and HDR Engineering presented model runs showing larger pond volumes under the NOAA Atlas 14 numbers; builders and developers warned the changes would raise development costs and reduce lot counts.

The changes matter because they would change how much stormwater storage new subdivisions and retrofit projects must provide, affecting pond size, lot yield and construction costs. HDR—onsultant Alan Vincent told the board his team ran about 18 scenarios and found the county esign baseline of a 100-year, 24-hour…