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Chattanooga staff outline RainSmart updates, maintenance rules and enforcement process
Summary
City stormwater staff presented revisions to the RainSmart incentive program—clarifying plant- and height-standards, a five-year maintenance agreement, and a complaint/enforcement workflow tied to stormwater-fee discounts—while council asked for clearer public guidance and data on local job impacts.
City stormwater staff and the nonprofit Waterways briefed the Chattanooga City Council on updates to the RainSmart residential incentive program, emphasizing native-plant-based green infrastructure to reduce stormwater runoff and meet the city's MS4 permit obligations.
"The main point is to reduce stormwater runoff and keep pollutants from our waterways," said Haley Hamblin, a water quality specialist with the city's stormwater division, who led the presentation. Hamblin told the council the program pairs rebates and installation support with education and guidance for homeowners.
Why it matters: RainSmart is intended to divert water from the municipal storm system by encouraging rain gardens, rain barrels, dense native-plant 'support scapes' and, more recently, stream-bank repair. Hamblin said the city currently counts more than 95 RainSmart gardens and that the program's installations capture "just over 21,000 gallons of stormwater" in a 1-inch rain event, a volume that she said would be…
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