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Brunswick County schedules public hearing on stormwater ordinance updates after staff proposes NOAA-based rainfall data and larger buffers
Summary
County staff proposed updating the stormwater manual to use NOAA Atlas 14 rainfall data, add a 100‑year design requirement for some projects, increase riparian buffers from 30 to 50 feet, and create a 20‑foot wetland buffer. The board agreed to set a public hearing for Nov. 17, 2025.
Brunswick County commissioners voted to schedule a public hearing on proposed updates to the county’s stormwater manual and ordinance, after staff outlined changes intended to bring design standards up to current precipitation data and to strengthen protections for streams and wetlands.
Bridget Flora, the county’s stormwater presenter, told the board the county’s design rainfall numbers date to 2002 and staff recommends replacing them with NOAA Atlas 14 values, which provide location-specific, historically based precipitation frequency data. "NOAA Atlas 14 is the authoritative source of precipitation frequency data for the U.S.," Flora said, adding the updated figures are already used by designers for local projects.
Flora also described a proposal to make the 100‑year/24‑hour storm a requirement in the manual rather than a recommendation and to retain the current 1‑, 10‑ and 25‑year analyses. She said that change could increase the footprint and cost of stormwater control measures on small sites, and staff would consider exemptions for very small commercial projects that cannot meet the 100‑year sizing requirement.
On buffers, staff proposed increasing the current 30‑foot riparian buffer requirement to 50 feet and amending the table of uses to prohibit stormwater control measures inside that buffer. Flora said the county would also introduce a 20‑foot horizontal buffer for delineated Section 404 wetlands, measured perpendicular to the delineation, with limited exceptions such as road crossings.
Staff advised the board that the rainfall‑data update could be implemented in the manual immediately, without ordinance change, but the buffer increases and related prohibitions would require ordinance amendments and a public hearing. Staff recommended a hearing date of Nov. 17, 2025; the board voted to schedule that hearing.
The board’s action is procedural: it schedules a public hearing for the formal ordinance amendments so the public can review and comment before any final vote. No ordinance changes were adopted at the meeting.
What’s next: Staff will prepare ordinance language and supporting materials for public notice and the Nov. 17 hearing, and will bring the updates back for formal action following the hearing.
