Green Stormwater Infrastructure

The effective management of stormwater runoff is an aspect of sustainable development and green building that is receiving increased attention from real estate developers, property managers, and building owners, particularly as cities and municipalities adopt stormwater impact fees and new systems of stormwater regulation.  Those that have enacted stormwater impact fee programs, such as Philadelphia, typically require new construction projects to incorporate state-of-the-art sustainable stormwater best management practices into their design in order to manage the majority of the property’s stormwater on-site.  Properties developed prior to the implementation of such fee programs or implementing regulations are also encouraged to retrofit older infrastructure and implement sustainable stormwater design in order to obtain credits that can be used to reduce the property’s total stormwater impact fee.  MGKF’s lawyers and in-house technical consultants have assisted clients in navigating these new stormwater regulations, developing sustainable stormwater best management practices, applying for and obtaining stormwater fee credits and grant funding, negotiating practicable stormwater management practices with Municipal regulatory agencies, and preparing contractual agreements between clients, contractors, and parties involved with constructing and maintaining the systems.

Representative Experience
Examples of representative green stormwater infrastructure matters in which our professionals have assisted clients include the following:

• The firm represented a large industrial property owner in the negotiation of various agreements related to a $2.7M grant for sustainable stormwater infrastructure obtained from the Philadelphia Water Department's Stormwater Management Incentives Program. 
• The firm has assisted multiple clients to obtain grant funding for stormwater retrofit projects through the Philadelphia Water Department’s Stormwater Management Incentives Program (SMIP) and Greened Acre Retrofit Program (GARP).
• The firm has assisted dozens of industrial and commercial property owners to receive credits on their non-residential stormwater charges under the Philadelphia Water Department’s stormwater credit and appeals system.
• The firm assisted several large commercial/industrial clients through the City of Philadelphia’s quadrennial Water Rate Making process.
• The firm’s technical consultants have acted as owner’s representative during construction and commissioning of state-of-the-art stormwater management system installation.
• The firm has represented clients in litigation related to failed stormwater management systems.
• The firm has represented clients in challenges of stormwater assessments.
• The firm has litigated cases involving challenges to the legal authority for municipal stormwater fee ordinances.