Houston County, GA Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

Rather than printing full stormwater engineering standards inside Chapter 30 itself, Houston County's Code of Ordinances incorporates them by reference. Section 30-121, 'Adoption of the water resources protection ordinance,' states that Articles 1 through 4 of the Houston County Water Resources Protection Ordinance and the Local Design Manual are adopted in their entirety as the water quality and quantity policies applicable to all surface waters in unincorporated Houston County, with the like effect as if recited in the section itself. That means the operative drainage-design, water-quality, and stormwater-quantity standards, covering detention requirements and post-construction runoff controls tied to the county's NPDES Phase II municipal separate storm sewer permit, live in the separately bound Water Resources Protection Ordinance and the county's Local Design Manual rather than in the numbered sections of Chapter 30 itself, though both documents carry full legal force.

The same November 15, 2005 resolution also adopted the county's Water Resource Protection Overlay Districts for wetlands and river corridors under § 30-101, Article 8 of the same parent ordinance, and its groundwater recharge and minimum lot size policy under § 30-161, Article 7, showing the county built its water-related regulation as one consolidated ordinance split across several Code articles by subject. Site plans and subdivision applications reviewed by the county engineer must satisfy these incorporated water-quantity and water-quality policies in addition to the separate soil erosion and sedimentation permit required under Article III of the same chapter.