Lewisburg council to consider stormwater ordinance changes July 14

Lewisburg Borough Council will consider changes to its stormwater ordinance at a July 14 hearing that could change how small projects are reviewed, exempted and built in the borough. The public notice says council will meet at 7:30 p.m. at the Lewisburg Borough Building, 55 South Fifth Street, to consider an ordinance revising Sections 290-7 and 290-17(A)(I) of Chapter 290, the borough’s Stormwater Management Ordinance.

The proposal would alter the exemption provision and change the water-quality equation used under the code. The ordinance dates to Ordinance No. 965, adopted July 19, 2005, and the current proposal shows the borough is revisiting the technical rules that determine when property owners, builders and contractors must deal with runoff calculations, stormwater paperwork and additional review before moving ahead with work.

The changes have been moving through borough discussion for months. On March 17, council directed the borough solicitor to prepare revisions recommended by the borough engineer that would fully exempt very minor projects under 1,000 square feet of disturbance. March meeting materials also called for a Stormwater Exemption Application and a list of best practices for projects between 1,000 and 5,000 square feet, a range that could affect additions, small redevelopments and other modest site changes. The Lewisburg Planning Commission did not recommend the 1,000-square-foot full-exemption language, and council member J. Pearson said he was standing by the 1,000-square-foot upper limit.

By June, borough committee agendas showed officials were reviewing an updated stormwater ordinance and an exemption application with best management practices, suggesting the language had been refined before the July hearing. For builders, the practical issue is whether the borough is drawing a clearer line between projects that will be reviewed and projects that can move forward with less paperwork, fewer calculations and less delay.

The stakes are not abstract in Lewisburg. The borough says its storm drainage system carries stormwater to Buffalo Creek, Miller Run, Bull Run and the West Branch Susquehanna River, and that it performs annual maintenance to reduce overflow onto roadways and private properties. Its flood-information page says the borough is subject to flooding from the West Branch Susquehanna River, Buffalo Creek and Limestone, or Bull, Run, and its 2023 Flood Mitigation Study found floodplains tied to those three watercourses cover about one-third of Lewisburg’s land area.

That flood risk has already shaped borough planning, from a 2022 flood mitigation study completed in June 2023 to flood-conscious park work along the Bull Run corridor, including Kidsburg Park Phase II and Piers Art Park. Pennsylvania’s Act 167 Storm Water Management Act of 1978 provides the broader state framework for watershed-based stormwater plans and model ordinances, and Lewisburg’s July 14 hearing will show how the borough intends to apply that framework to future development, drainage enforcement and the cost of building in town.