The Demorest City Council will revisit the stormwater ordinance they have been discussing at a special called meeting next week. The ordinance will require any new developments in the city to include basins to catch and collect stormwater in their development plans.
The council discussed the ordinance, which will serve as an addition to the city’s minimum development standards, at the their Tuesday meeting. The ordinance will not have any effect on existing properties and developments within the city.
The city has seen several instances of flooding, overflowing creeks and overflowing streams over the course of the past few years, which Demorest Mayor Rick Austin and Public Works Director Bryan Popham attribute to development in the city. As more developments and pavement come to the city, there is less earth to absorb water during storms. When that water has no place to go, flooding occurs.
“One of the ways that you mitigate future problems is to ensure that any future development has stormwater catch basins,” Austin tells Now Habersham. “Right now, we don’t have any ordinances in place that force developers, regardless of elevation or slope, to put something like that in place to impede water from rapidly going into streams.”
Austin first brought the idea forward to the council in the fall of 2021, and the city’s council, city manager, city attorney, public works staff and water and sewer consultant all seem to support the ordinance.
“Two of the most important individuals in our public works department, Bryan [Popham] and the contractor, Fletcher Holiday, and his company who operates our wastewater treatment facility, have both told us the importance of the stormwater ordinance,” Austin said at the Dec. 7 meeting. “It’s going to save us money in the long run in our processing of sewage, it’s going to save us money in the long run in terms of protecting our infrastructure that crosses many creeks across this city, and it’s also going to protect our road infrastructure.”
Tuesday’s discussion of the ordinance served as its first reading, and Austin is hopeful that the council can move forward with passing the ordinance at their Dec. 16 special called meeting.
“I think we’re moving forward, I’m looking forward to the solution,” Austin said. “I hope we can get to that solution before the end of this year, I’d like to be part of that.”
