Low Impact Development Toolkit

No matter what the budget, clients expect their consulting teams to manage a complex set of engineering and regulatory challenges; stormwater management is an increasingly prominent piece of this puzzle.

State standards and EPA's Phase II rules have made stormwater a critical development issue, and many cities and towns are now considering local stormwater bylaws to expand and centralize local authority.

However, communities and developers are looking for alternatives to conventional “pipe and pond” stormwater controls, which are often considered unsightly, expensive, and ineffective. Meanwhile, combined sewer overflows are forcing municipalities to address runoff from densely developed areas.

There is another way.

Low Impact Development

Low Impact Development is a set of strategies that treat stormwater management as a site design problem, not an exercise in sizing storm drains and detention ponds.

Creative site planning and small, decentralized treatment and infiltration techniques are used to minimize runoff and maintain natural hydrology. Low impact techniques are used nationwide, with an established set of design and performance standards that can be applied to achieve compliance with state and local codes.

Increasing interest in low impact strategies has created a growing demand for LID-proficient designers for both new construction and retrofit efforts.

Please browse this toolkit online through the links provided or download a print-ready PDF version of the Low Impact Development Toolkit. To request full-color hard copies of this document, please e-mail lid@mapc.org.

Credit: This publication is one component of the Massachusetts Low Impact Development Toolkit, produced by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, in coordination with the I-495 MetroWestCorridor Partnership, and with financial support from United States Environmental Protection Agency. The Massachusetts Low Impact Development Interagency Working Group provided valuable input and feedback on the LID Toolkit.