Thomas & Hutton assisted the Town of Summerville in establishing a Special Protection Area (SPA) Management Plan for its West 5th North Street Downtown Drainage Basin. Due to ongoing severe flooding and drainage issues, the Town sought to create a plan to provide enhanced stormwater management requirements for new development and redevelopment projects that fall within (or partially within) the affected drainage basin. Thomas & Hutton developed a detailed understanding of the specific issues and developed the SPA Management Plan document with specific stormwater management requirements tailored to address the unique needs of the drainage basin.
The plan presents specific stormwater design standards for residential, commercial, institutional, and major subdivisions of various sizes. The plan’s objective is to prevent frequent flooding during 2-, 10-, and 25-year storm events by reducing the peak runoff rates for design storm events, implementing runoff reduction practices, and requiring engineering plans and stormwater management for small projects that do not typically require stormwater management, such as single-family residential, small commercial, and industrial projects. In addition to the requirements for new development, the plan also provides more generous design requirements to encourage redevelopment projects that include new stormwater management practices.