Revitalization of downtown areas is critical to the economies of many cities across America. In Florida, downtown redevelopment presents a unique challenge as all new developments must meet the State’s strict stormwater management regulations. With these regulations, regional stormwater management solutions are an attractive option that allows for the highest and best use of valuable downtown real estate.
B&N assisted the City of Dunedin, Florida with developing their Downtown Redevelopment Plan to support the City’s economy. By integrating a regional stormwater approach, the plan enabled individual property owners within the Downtown Redevelopment Area to improve their properties without having to set aside a portion of the land for stormwater management.
It was important in B&N’s process that the master stormwater plan update was primarily focused on capital improvements to address water quantity and floodplain issues within the City. With this understanding, the concept development focused mostly on satisfying the State’s stormwater quality discharge requirements.
While the stormwater master plan update was based upon a previously completed master plan, the concept of the Downtown Redevelopment Plan was an entirely new task with no initial body of work to build upon. B&N staff worked with City Public Works managers and commissioners to formulate an approach and establish future goals for the designated redevelopment area. The primary focus was to achieve a net improvement to the amount of nutrients discharging to Clearwater Harbor. Multiple best management practices (BMP) alternatives were strategically located within existing public lands and evaluated for their cost & effectiveness in removing total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) from the downtown stormwater runoff. Final recommendations included four separate BMP’s, cumulatively exceeding the targeted removal rates of 421kg/year of TN and 67 kg/year of TP.