If low impact development (LID) strategies to control pollution related to stormwater are so great, then why don’t we see more of them? That was the question posed by Steve J. Miller of the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve at this year’s New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission’s Annual Nonpoint Source Pollution Conference in Portland, Maine. From Miller’s experience with municipal land use boards, while some are asking for more effective nonpoint source (NPS) solutions, boards seem reluctant to actually approve LID proposals. But why?

Miller outlined four categories of barriers to LID implementation: lack of education, regulatory issues, LID conflicts, and other. There appears to be a need for LID education in general, and specifically for the long-term performance of LID strategies, the cost of LID, and ownership and maintenance issues. Concerning regulatory issues, the following are considered barriers:

• Need for specific ordinances
• Need for regulatory requirements
• Consistency within towns, across towns, and across states
• Perception of LID as just another way for environmentalists to curb development

Miller also found that land use boards see LID as conflicting with public safety and road maintenance, and as creating problems with implementation if projects involve multiple regulatory agencies. Other barriers observed were entrenched habits of boards and their members, a lack of professional guidance and involvement, a lack of leadership on LID implementation by board members, and enforcement.

To overcome regulatory barriers, Miller recommends offering economic and permitting incentives, improving ordinances to require infiltration, creating better communication systems between towns, integrating LID into municipal master and comprehensive plans, and emphasizing Phase II stormwater regulations when dealing with boards. LID proponents need to educate municipal boards and officers through demonstration projects and published guidance and resources, as well as provide accessible information to the media for dissemination. To overcome LID conflicts, LID project proponents should develop support for LID with engineering staff, connect smart growth principles with LID, and provide technical assistance to write and implement LID ordinances. The way to achieve the goal of overcoming resistance to LID is to make it as easy, and as timely, as the implementation of conventional designs.

Because LID is a key tool to reduce impacts of development on water resources, recognizing the barriers, and finding and creating strategies to overcome those barriers, is critical. And, as Miller expressed, overcoming those barriers at the municipal land use board level is essential in the effort to get LID to be the norm in stormwater management rather than the exception.