La Habra, CA Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

La Habra Municipal Code Section 13.24.020 prohibits any person from constructing, maintaining, operating or utilizing an illicit connection to the storm water drainage system, or from causing, allowing or facilitating a prohibited discharge, defined broadly to include any pollutant reaching the storm drains, an upstream tributary, groundwater, a creek or wash, or the Pacific Ocean. Legal nonconforming connections established before the 1997 ordinance lose their protection five years after the effective date for structural improvements, or six months after the city delivers notice for nonstructural ones.

Section 13.24.030 requires all new development and significant redevelopment within the city, beginning September 6, 1997, to comply with the DAMP, including its development project guidance, plus any city conditions reasonably related to reducing pollutants in runoff. The Community Development Group reviews the water quality management plan and imposes conditions before the city issues a grading, building or nonresidential plumbing permit, or before a discretionary approval or subdivision map recordation where no such permit applies. A single new or redeveloped single-family home with a footprint of 3,900 square feet or less, and any project disturbing 1,000 square feet of soil or less, is exempt from the development project guidance unless the community development director finds a significant pollutant discharge risk. Applicants reimburse the city for WQMP plan check and inspection costs and may be required to post a deposit against those costs.