Waukegan, IL Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

Rather than drafting its own detention, grading or drainage standards, Waukegan's city council chose to incorporate the Lake County Watershed Development Ordinance wholesale into the city code, and Sec. 18-10 states that ordinance 'is in full force and effect within the City of Waukegan' as most recently amended by the county on July 11, 2023. The section notes the adopted text 'is found in its own compilation,' meaning the operative stormwater standards, such as detention sizing, floodplain protection and site-runoff requirements, live in the county's separate Watershed Development Ordinance document rather than being reprinted inside the city's own code.

The current version of Sec. 18-10 traces to Ord. No. 20-O-92, adopted December 21, 2020, and was updated by Ord. No. 23-O-265 on September 5, 2023, to keep pace with the county's own July 11, 2023 amendment. Waukegan's Unified Development Ordinance separately requires new streets and parking lots to integrate stormwater management facilities, such as bioswales and bioretention planters, within parkways and to be graded so surface water is not directed onto adjacent properties, with the city engineer approving the drainage design. Because the substantive numeric and technical standards sit in the county's ordinance rather than Chapter 18, a developer or homeowner working in Waukegan needs to consult the Lake County Watershed Development Ordinance directly, not just the city's code, to find the specific detention volumes, permit thresholds, and review procedures that apply to a given project.