Council amends drainage rules to ease development burden

On May 28 the Galveston City Council unanimously approved an ordinance amending Chapter 10, Section 10‑16 (drainage regulations) of the city building code, changing the drainage design criteria to 0.75 acre‑feet per acre and applying that requirement to impervious coverage only.

Council adopted the change after staff said the adjustment would reduce the regulatory burden developers had reported. "Last week at our council meeting, we had a discussion about how to alleviate some of the burden that the development community is seeing with regards to the drainage design criteria," Rob Wennick, director of infrastructure and engineering, told the council. "What you have in front of you today is to make that change and hopefully move forward with a less burdensome criteria on the community."

The amendment was put forward by staff at council's request and moved to approval at the meeting; council members who spoke in favor said the change was a prompt response to developer and citizen concerns and could encourage projects that had been delayed. A contractor who spoke during the action item said the revision should make it easier for some developers to proceed.

The ordinance was approved by unanimous vote. Council members did not specify additional implementing rules or a phased schedule in the meeting; the director of infrastructure and engineering and city staff will implement the updated design criteria under existing permitting processes.

Ending City staff said they would publish the updated design criteria and allow developers and engineers to proceed under the amended standard.