Item Coversheet

Ordinance

NO. 16-2019

Proposed Ordinance No. 16-2019 to amend various sections of Chapter 1048 of City Ordinances, Stormwater Management, to make necessary updates, including those consistent with the new Technical Reference Manual.

BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN - 12/3/2019

The City of Battle Creek Ordains:

 

Section 1. An ordinance to amend sections 3, 5, 7-11, 13 -14, 18-19 and 21 of Chapter 1048, "Stormwater Management," to update the chapter consistent with the new Technical Reference Manual and make grammatical corrections, as are attached and made a part hereof.

 

Section 2. Should any section, clause or phrase of this Ordinance be declared to be invalid, the same shall not affect the validity of the Ordinance as a whole, or any part thereof, other than the part so declared to be invalid.

 

Section 3. All ordinances or parts of ordinances, in conflict with any of the provisions of this Ordinance, are hereby repealed, saving any prosecution, criminal or administrative appeal pending on, or violation cited on or before the effective date of this ordinance, which shall remain subject to the ordinance provision existing at the time of the alleged violation.

 

Section 4. This Ordinance shall take effect ten (10) days from the date of its adoption, in accordance with the provisions of Section 4.3(B) of Chapter 4 of the City Charter.










I, Victoria Houser, City Clerk of the City of Battle Creek, hereby certify the above and foregoing is a true and correct copy of a Resolution adopted by the Battle Creek City Commission at a Regular meeting held on December 3, 2019.


Victoria Houser

Battle Creek City Commission
12/3/2019
Action Summary

Staff Member: Jill Humphreys Steele, City Attorney 
Department:City Attorney 
SUMMARY 
Proposed Ordinance No. 16-2019 to amend various sections of Chapter 1048 of City Ordinances, Stormwater Management, to make necessary updates, including those consistent with the new Technical Reference Manual.
BUDGETARY CONSIDERATIONS
There are none.

HISTORY, BACKGROUND and  DISCUSSION

For the most part, Chapter 1048 has not been updated since 2001. A few amendments were made in 2008 to a handful of sections of this chapter. The City's Department of Public Works (DPW) has updated the city's Technical Reference Manual (TRM), which will be presented to the commission for approval at the December 17, 2019 City Commission meeting. 

 

Chapter 1048 was reviewed for necessary revisions to ensure consistency with planned amendments to the Technical Reference Manual. In that review process, several other amendments were made to make grammatical corrections, to make clarifications that have been deemed necessary, and to transition to ungendered language. The following amendments are made to the following sections:

 

  • Section 3, definitions, are amended to correct the reference to the Calhoun County Enforcing Area instead of the Conservation District, which amendment is appropriate to provide conformance with the underlying state statute and county ordinance; to create ungendered language regarding the DPW Director; and to provide consistency with definitions in the TRM. 
  • Section 5 amendments are to provide consistency with definition amendments and to add an exemption for known contaminated parcels that are in compliance with due care plans.
  • Section 7 contains a grammatical correction.
  • Sections 8 and 9 amendments are to provide consistency with the TRM and to simplify the ordinance section by referencing the TRM.
  • Section 10 amendments are to change reference from "registered" professional engineer to "licensed" professional engineer since the state of Michigan does not register engineers but instead licenses them.
  • Section 11 amends a spelling error.
  • Sections 13-14 and 19 amendments are to provide consistency with the TRM.
  • Section 18 is amended to provide clarity that the obligation to keep a water course free from obstructions does not extend to non-manmade obstructions.
  • Section 21 is amended to incorporate a fairly common practice of the city entering into maintenance agreements with property owners to ensure compliance with those agreements and provide a remedy for noncompliance. 

DISCUSSION OF THE ISSUE

POSITIONS
The Public Works Director and City Attorney support these proposed amendments.
ATTACHMENTS:
File NameDescription
CHAPTER_1048_Nov_2019_amendments_redline.pdfChapter 1048 Ordinance amendments storm water mgmt redline Dec 2019
CHAPTER_1048_Nov_2019_amendments_CLEAN.pdfCh 1048 Storm Water Mgmt Dec 2019 amendments CLEAN