Pawtucket, RI Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

Added December 22, 2005 by Ch. No. 2793 as Article XB of the Zoning Code, Pawtucket's Post-Construction Stormwater Control article applies broadly: § 410-92.16 states that "no person shall engage in land development activities without receiving approval from the City Planning Commission or the Department of Planning and Redevelopment," and extends even to smaller projects, since development that increases impervious surface on a parcel by "more than 300 square feet must demonstrate compliance with § 410-92.19." Every covered applicant must submit a written stormwater management plan meeting the technical standards in § 410-92.17, requiring "best management practices for water quality control, which in combination are demonstrated to reduce the average annual total suspended solids in post-development runoff by 80%," with stricter standards where a project sits in a drinking-water watershed or an impaired 303(d)-listed watershed.

Plans must also control peak discharge rates for the two-year, ten-year, twenty-five-year, and one-hundred-year storm events to predevelopment levels, and size conveyance systems to handle a twenty-five-year storm without erosive flows. Section 410-92.19 layers on calculation and narrative requirements, from subbasin impervious-surface area to a full site description and BMP justification. Maintenance obligations under §§ 410-92.18 and 410-92.20 don't end at construction: facilities need a written maintenance agreement recorded in the City's land evidence records, a maintenance schedule naming the responsible party, and regular City inspections.