HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 1/17/2017 - Memorandum From Jon Haukaas, Ken Sampley, Shane Boyle, Heather Mcdowell Re: Fort Collins Stormwater Criteria Manual UpdatesUtilities
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Fort Collins, CO 80522
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M E M O R A N D U M
DATE: January 10, 2017
TO: Mayor Troxell and Councilmembers
FROM: Jon Haukaas, Water Engineering & Field Services Manager
Ken Sampley, Water Systems Engineering Manager
Shane Boyle, Water Utilities Engineering, Senior Development Review Engineer
Heather McDowell, Water Utilities Engineering
THROUGH: Darin Atteberry, City Manager
Kevin R. Gertig, Utilities Executive Director
RE: Fort Collins Stormwater Criteria Manual Updates
Current Fort Collins Stormwater Criteria Manual:
The current stormwater criteria manual was adopted in 2012 as the “Fort Collins Amendments to the
Urban Drainage and Flood Control District Criteria Manual” also referred to as the Fort Collins
Stormwater Criteria Manual (FCSCM). In general, this document only includes amended, added and
deleted text from the 2001 Urban Drainage and Flood Control District (UDFCD) Criteria Manual. Since
the 2001 UDFCD Manual was published it has been updated at least twice. Since our adoption of the
UDFCD Manual in 2012, an updated UDFCD Manual was published in early 2016, which includes some
very significant changes and updates from the previous version(s).
In the current FCSCM, there is a need to provide some updates and revisions to various sections of text,
namely, more thoroughly defined procedure for calculating runoff, design information for channel/swale
criteria, freeboard criteria, information on Colorado Revised Statute §37-92-602 (8) regarding detention
drain time criteria, underground detention criteria updates, more defined design parameters for LID
design, MS4 compliance updates, erosion control requirement updates and several other minor revisions.
End-users of the FCSCM are most often the civil engineering design professionals. Their feedback on the
format and functionality of the current FCSCM has been that it is hard to use, hard to follow and doesn’t
thoroughly address all design requirements. City staff sentiment is similar.
Current UDFCD Manual:
The 2016 UDFCD Manual includes some fairly significant updates to the previous versions and was
reorganized in a way that presents some of the information in a different order and outline. Since the
current FCSCM references the older UDFCD Manual, we are not able to easily reference the 2016
UDFCD Manual without also making some significant updates to the amendments format of the FCSCM.
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The 2016 UDFCD Manual, even though not officially adopted by the City of Fort Collins, has become a
common reference document for staff and design engineers alike because of the design tools and
spreadsheet capabilities. It has also become an industry standard reference for LID information and
design guidance. While City staff regularly references the 2016 UDFCD Manual, we also need to be clear
about the components of it that we do not follow or accept. In addition, there are certain items that are
utilized in the City drainage criteria today that are no longer fully addressed in the 2016 UDFCD Manual.
As such, we would like to change the way we refer to all UDFCD Criteria Manuals, old and new.
FCSCM Updates Recommendation:
As a result of the above stated issues, we are recommending to change the configuration from the
“Amendments to UDFCD Criteria Manual” format to a more user-friendly and more organized stand-
alone manual; one that does not require the user to move back and forth between two documents to get a
full reading of each section, but rather is a comprehensive stormwater design resource of its own accord,
more effectively communicating the criteria in a more concise and clear manner which also allows for
better enforceability of the regulations. Stormwater Utility staff is available to present the draft materials
that have been prepared to-date to the Leadership Planning Team, the Executive Leadership Team and/or
City Council, if requested.
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