Regional Strategy for Rainwater Management

zoning in flood plains

Currently development is permitted on flood plains which normally are restricted under develop permit areas. If modeling for future rainfall events indicate potential increase in flood hazards within those areas, zoning bylaws could be adjusted accordingly to limit development or prevent development in flood plains.

Mandate for rainwater management/harvesting policies dependent on size for commercial buildings

If a development is being planned for a large commercial application, there should be mandates in place, ensuring that it utilizes not only rainwater management policies, but also rainwater harvesting. This would be an extra expense up front, which is why this would not be ideal for all business. Perhaps based on a certain square footage of total land area, would dictate whether it is required to follow certain protocol. The larger buildings that are usually seen in commercial applications, should 100% be utilizing rainwater harvesting for at the very least irrigation use during the summer months (which pretty much all commercial land currently utilizes water from our lakes to irrigate their lawn during the summer), and even taking it a step further, utilizing it for grey water use within their buildings.

require restorative development of redeveloped lands and apply some DCC funds to restoring natural water balance in existing developments.

Include water balance modelling in new development applications and logging plans.

This would at least maintain the status quo of how much water is retained onsite before it gets released and contribute to flooding. Ideally the goal would be to aim for the same amount of water retention as pre-development or pre-logging.

Better rainwater harvesting rebate program

Current costs of a typical rainwater harvesting system can range from $1000 (on the low end) to $5000+ on larger systems. A lot of homeowners and business owners may find it a challenge to have the excess funds to install a rainwater harvesting system into their location, especially during the hard times of late. As such, a more comprehensive rainwater harvesting rebate program would help homeowners and business owners alike. The more incentive there is for rainwater harvesting, the more this will be implemented throughout the RDN, and BC.