Port Orange, FL Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

Chapter 10's Article II requires anyone developing land, changing its use, or altering a structure's size within Port Orange to first get a stormwater development permit, unless the activity is exempt. Exemptions cover single-family and duplex residences and their accessory structures, ordinary agricultural work, canal and utility maintenance that does not change the drainage system's function, and any one-time project adding no more than 4,000 square feet of paved or semi-paved vehicular surface, or 5,000 square feet of other impervious area. Where a permit is required, the city determines within ten working days whether the application is complete, and once complete, the department has 21 days to approve, approve with conditions, or deny it.

The design itself must meet numeric performance standards: retention systems must hold at least a half-inch of depth of runoff across the entire project area, and the post-development discharge hydrograph cannot exceed the pre-development hydrograph, in peak flow and total volume, for a 24-hour, 25-year storm; a parallel standard caps the 100-year, 24-hour peak discharge at the pre-development level. Direct discharge into class II waters is banned outright unless the runoff passes through a workable filter system first. Lowering the water table for a detention or retention basin is presumed acceptable only if it affects no more than 15 percent of the site to a depth of five feet, among the other listed conditions, and does not harm neighboring wetlands or increase flows onto adjoining land.

Once built, the owner must maintain the stormwater system unless the city has formally accepted it for public maintenance, and the operator must inspect the system every two years to confirm it still functions as designed and permitted, keeping written inspection records available to the city on request. If the city finds a project built or operating out of compliance with its approved plans, it can issue a stop-work order, and an owner who fails to correct a maintenance problem within 30 days of written notice can have the city perform the work itself and place a lien on the property for the cost.