Concord, NC Landscaping Rules: Rainwater Harvesting (2026)

11 of the Concord Development Ordinance establishes the city's Low Impact Development, LID, overlay, aimed at replicating a site's pre-development hydrology by controlling stormwater at its source. 7(C) requires every proposed LID project to demonstrate substantial compliance with four sets of design standards, one of which is Standard 4, Low Impact Integrated Management Practices, covering small-scale controls that capture, store and infiltrate stormwater close to where it falls. 6 under that standard lets a project satisfy Standard 4 by using rain barrels and cisterns sized to store runoff conveyed through building downspouts for later landscape watering.

The code distinguishes the two devices: rain barrels are described as generally smaller, above-ground structures, while cisterns are larger, often buried, and may tie into a building's plumbing or irrigation system. If a developer selects this guideline, the ordinance sets a hard threshold: rain barrels or cisterns must be utilized on greater than 50% of the overall number of downspouts within the project. The plan-review process backs up the number: the areas of the site or individual lots where the devices will sit must be shown on the conceptual plans submitted with the LID application, and at the time an individual structure applies for a permit, the exact locations must again be indicated on the required plot plan.

Because the guideline is one of several menu options under Standard 4, alongside bioretention cells, dry wells and tree box filters listed elsewhere in the same section, Concord does not force every downspout on every lot into a rain barrel, but a developer who commits to this path on paper is bound to the 50% figure at permitting and construction.