Section 16-13-1. Title. This ordinance shall be known and cited as the "City Urban Runoff Drainage Ordinance."

[Source: Ord. 531, 1979]

Section 16-13-2. Purpose. The City Council recognizes that the City is subject to damage from floods. The presently existing storm drainage facilities provide some protection, but are inadequate for containing storms other than those of a minor nature. As development of the land area within the City continues, the runoff of storm water increases, thereby increasing the volume of water which the City's storm drainage facilities must contain.

Each property owner within the City, to the extent that he makes use of the City's storm drainage facilities by means of adding storm water runoff to those facilities beyond the amount of runoff which would occur if the land were undeveloped, should pay for the use, and his share of the cost, of such facilities.

In addition to these general purposes, the City Council declares that this ordinance is adopted for the following specific purposes:

To promote the public health, safety, and welfare, by permitting the movement of emergency vehicles during flooding periods, and to minimize flood losses and the inconvenience and damage resulting from uncontrolled and unplanned storm runoff in the City;

To implement a plan that includes a coordinated program of creating upstream ponding for temporary detention of storm runoff waters;

To establish a storm drainage and flood control manager in the Public Works Department in order to coordinate, design, construct, manage, operate and maintain the storm drainage and flood control system;

To establish reasonable storm drainage and flood control fees on the basis of the use made of storm drainage facilities; and

To encourage and facilitate urban water resources management techniques, including detention of storm runoff, minimization of the need to construct storm sewers, reduction of pollution, and the enhancement of the environment.

[Source: Ord. 531, 1979; 1608, 2011]

Section 16-13-3. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following words and terms shall be defined as follows, unless the context in which they are used clearly indicates otherwise:

"Facilities" includes all uses of land which are made in conjunction with, and which are related and incident to, the construction, installation and use of the physical structures and equipment necessary to contain and control storm water, such as channels, bridges, pipes, etc.;

"Historic one hundred year flood plain" means that area along a channel that would be inundated by a one hundred year flood if no development had occurred.

[Source: Ord. 531, 1979]

Section 16-13-4. Implementation of Urban Runoff Management Plan.

The City Manager shall implement the existing Urban Runoff Management Plan.

The Urban Runoff Management Plan, based on engineering studies, indicates the location of all drainage facilities in the City, including those facilities which presently exist and those which are determined to be needed, and which are intended to be constructed, in the future. The facilities shown on the plan include all major drainage ways which directly or indirectly affect drainage within the City, all drainage basins within the City, and all conduits, channels, natural drainage course, retention reservoirs, easements, culverts, bridges and other facilities which are required to provide for the drainage and control of surface waters within the basins of the drainage ways and to carry such waters to designated points of outflow or discharge. Maximum citizen participation during all phases of the implementation of the storm drainage and flood control regulations shall be encouraged.

To insure citizen participation on actual construction projects, at any time a project is proposed by the City to implement the Urban Runoff Management Plan, the City administration shall hold a public hearing in the neighborhood where the project is to be constructed. The Planning Board and City Council shall hold public hearings prior to construction of the project.

[Source: Ord. 531, 1979]

Section 16-13-5. Supplementary Studies. Supplementary studies shall be made by the City Manager to determine the estimated cost of constructing the drainage facilities shown on the Urban Runoff Management Plan and which do not presently exist. This estimated cost shall include the expense of any necessary land acquisition, as well as the cost of the supplementary studies themselves.

[Source: Ord. 531, 1979]

Section 16-13-6. Purpose of Urban Runoff Management Plan. The purpose of the Urban Runoff Management Plan is to identify and alleviate present and future drainage and flooding problems in the City by means of presenting in an orderly fashion the general data and information which are essential in understanding the relationship between rainfall and storm runoff. The Urban Runoff Management Plan shall serve as the official designation of drainage facilities and drainage ways shown thereon. The Urban Runoff Management Plan may be altered from time to time to conform with existing conditions.

[Source: Ord. 531, 1979]

Section 16-13-7. Annual Report by City Manager. In the annual proposed budget of the City, the City Manager shall submit to the City Council a proposed budget for the construction of storm and flood drainage facilities for the ensuing budget year, which budget shall contain a statement of all amounts presently in the storm drainage and flood control account, an estimate of anticipated revenues for the ensuing budget year, and a list of the proposed projects to be constructed or developed.

Section 16-13-7.5. Approval of Storm Drainage Fees--Appeal.

City Council shall approve by resolution the amount of the storm Water impact fee imposed, to pay for those improvements identified in the urban runoff management plan, and to defray the cost of particular governmental services, specifically the direct and indirect costs of development and implementation of the city's storm water management program and the design, construction, repair and maintenance of storm water and drainage related capital improvements. The fee shall be assessed on all persons or property which contribute storm water runoff. The City Council may from time to time approve an increase or decrease in the amount of storm water impact fees imposed.

The owner of any property required to pay a storm water impact fee may appeal the imposition of the fee, one time only to the City Manager or his designee within thirty (30) days following the mailing of any billing or invoice for such fee. Such appeal shall be in writing and shall state with specificity the reason or reasons that the application of the storm water impact fee to the particular property in question is not reasonably calculated to defray an equitable share of the direct and indirect costs associated with the administration of the storm water management program and the detention, retention and treatment of storm water flows attributable to the property. The City Manager or his designee may grant, deny, or grant in part and deny in part any such appeal and shall render a written decision within thirty (30) days following receipt of the appeal.

The decision of the City Manager or his designee under this section may be appealed to the Board of Adjustment pursuant to section 11-42-2 of the Northglenn Municipal Code.

The City Council shall approve any increase or decrease in the amount of storm drainage fees imposed.

[Source: Ord. 531, 1979; 1368, 2004; 1385, 2004]

Section 16-13-8. Duties of Land Developers - General. The City Council finds and declares that each developer of land within the City has a duty to provide on his property all reasonably necessary drainage facilities to ensure the adequate drainage and control of flood and storm waters which fall on his property, as well as the flood and storm waters from all other property which contribute runoff to his property.

[Source: Ord. 531, 1979]

Section 16-13-9. Storm Drainage Plans.

Prior to the issuance by the City of a building permit for any building or structure, other than a single family dwelling, that may result in a land disturbance of one or more acres, or result in land disturbance of less than one acre but which is part of a larger common plan of development, the property owner or building permit applicant shall submit a detailed storm drainage plan to the City, and the requested building permit shall not be issued until and unless this storm drainage plan has been approved by the City Manager or the City Manager's designee. Such plan will be reviewed from the standpoint of generally accepted engineering principles and standards in the area of storm and drainage control.

The storm drainage plan shall establish, locate, or otherwise define the alignment and boundary of any natural drainage course, drainage facility, or subdrainage area on the land in question, and it shall include drawings, profiles, and specifications for the construction and installation of channels, conduits, reservoirs, culverts, bridges, easements, and all other drainage facilities reasonably necessary to ensure that flood and storm waters, including drainage from other lands which will contribute runoff to the property in question, will be adequately drained and controlled. Included in the plan shall be a schedule containing the estimated dates of completion of construction for all storm drainage facilities shown on the plan. If and when the plan is approved and the building permit issued the applicant shall comply with the schedule.

No storm drainage plan shall be approved by the City Manager unless it conforms with the master drainage plan, and particularly that portion of the master plan which relates to the drainage basin in which the land in question is located.

The approval by the City Council, or the City's Planning Department or Planning Board of every subdivision, planned unit development, special review use, and height exception is conditioned, whether expressly stated or not, on the submission and approval of the storm drainage plan required by this section.

On-site detention storage or other reasonable runoff reduction techniques shall be required for all developments, including any individual single family lots which may disturb greater than an acre, but are not part of a larger common plan of development. All ponding or runoff reduction techniques must meet the reasonable requirements of urban hydrology, and be in conformance with applicable City and Urban Drainage and Flood Control District standards regarding water quality and quantity.

The City Manager shall have the authority to waive any or all of the requirements of this section for particular developments, or to impose additional requirements consistent with the purposes of the storm drainage and flood control regulations as set forth in the City Code, if such waiver or imposition of additional regulations is reasonably necessary due to the existence of special geological or topographical conditions.

The approved plan shall be so developed as to be integrated into the City's open space irrigation and flood storage networks, in order to permit re-use of flood waters and subsequent reapplication to cooperating farming entities in contractual relationships with the City.

[Source: Ord. 531, 1979; 1608, 2011; 1717, 2016]

Section 16-13-10. Easements for Drainage Ways. In order to achieve the purposes of this ordinance, it is necessary for the City to acquire easements for the construction and maintenance of channels along the natural drainage ways in the City as shown on the Urban Runoff Management Plan. The resulting reestablishment of the historical channels shall lessen the width of the flood plain, thereby benefiting the property through which the drainage ways flow, and permitting the owners of the property to make greater use of their land. Therefore, when the owner of a parcel of land through which a natural drainage way flows as shown on the Urban Runoff Management Plan applies for a building permit in order to develop the subject property, he shall be required to grant to the City, at no expense, a permanent easement for the purpose of constructing, maintaining, and reconstructing a channel along the drainage way.

[Source: Ord. 531, 1979]

Section 16-13-11. Construction of Drainage Facilities. In order to guarantee the construction of any drainage facilities shown on an approved storm drainage plan, the owner of the land in question must submit to the City, prior to the issuance of a building permit, and in a form satisfactory to the office of the City Attorney, a financial guarantee for the construction of the facilities.

[Source: Ord. 531, 1979]

Section 16-13-12. Severability Clause. If any provision of this ordinance or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of the ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid provisions or applications, and to this end the provisions or applications of this ordinance are declared to be severable.

[Source: Ord. 531, 1979]