Toms River, NJ Landscaping Rules: Rainwater Harvesting (2026)

Section 348-8.28.1, adopted in 2006 and last amended in 2021, sets the township's stormwater management control standard for 'major development' under the Municipal Land Use Law. Subsection A declares that green infrastructure best management practices (GI BMPs) and low-impact development should be used to maintain natural hydrology, reduce runoff volume, cut erosion, and encourage infiltration and groundwater recharge. Most nonresidential and residential major development must go through the full design and performance review in the section's later subsections.

Subsection A(3)(a)[3] carves out a narrower path for site plans for nonresidential development in an urban redevelopment area that disturb less than one acre. Those projects are treated as meeting the stormwater standard, subject to a determination by the Township Engineer under Subsection D(5)(a), if they incorporate one of three specific measures: routing roof drainage directly to dry wells, rain barrels or planting beds; intercepting driveway runoff into landscape strips, bioswales or rain gardens; or directing parking-lot runoff into landscape strips, bioswales or rain gardens.

Using rain barrels or dry wells under this clause does not end a property's obligations: Subsection J(1) folds any project reviewed under Subsection A(3) into the general maintenance rules of Subsection J(2) and (3), which require a written maintenance plan, an annual effectiveness evaluation, and a maintenance log kept available for inspection by any public entity with authority over the site.

Subsection K sets a flat penalty for violating any part of the section: $2,000 per violation for erecting, constructing, altering, repairing, converting, maintaining, or using a building, structure, or land in violation. Subsection M ties the section's effective date to final Township Council passage, mayoral approval, and 20 days after publication.