Bayonne, NJ Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

Bayonne's stormwater chapter, adopted under Ordinance No. O-21-17 and last amended June 18, 2025 by Ordinance No. O-25-38, exists to control flooding, protect groundwater recharge and reduce pollution using green infrastructure best management practices and low-impact development, per Section 30-1.1's policy statement. Its numeric trigger is the definition of 'major development' in Section 30-2: an individual project, or multiple related projects, that disturb one or more acres of land since February 2, 2004, or that create one-quarter acre or more of new impervious surface since that date, or a comparable amount of regulated motor vehicle surface since March 2, 2021.

Once a project crosses that line, Section 30-3 requires its stormwater management measures to be designed for erosion control, groundwater recharge, and stormwater runoff quantity and quality treatment, and directs that the groundwater recharge, quality and quantity pieces specifically be met by incorporating green infrastructure rather than older detention-only designs. The chapter reaches both nonresidential major development and the parts of residential major development not already preempted by the state's Residential Site Improvement Standards, and it also binds development undertaken by the City of Bayonne itself.

A design engineer must also prepare a maintenance plan for every project's stormwater measures under Section 30-10, and the responsible party has 14 days after written notice from the municipality to fix a facility that becomes a danger to public health or safety before the City can do the work and bill the cost. Enforcement runs through Section 30-11, which sets an escalating penalty scale for any violation of the chapter.