Youngstown, OH Landscaping Rules: Rainwater Harvesting (2026)

Youngstown does not maintain a standalone rainwater-harvesting ordinance for landscaping; the practice is addressed inside the Comprehensive Stormwater Management chapter's performance standards for developers. Section 950.10(a)(1)B requires that Stormwater Control Measures (SCMs) maintain predevelopment hydrology and groundwater recharge on as much of a development site as practicable, and directs that where feasible, bioretention, permeable pavement with infiltration, underground storage with infiltration, infiltration trenches, infiltration basins, and rainwater harvesting must be the water quality SCMs used, with separate SCMs allowed for peak discharge control versus water quality treatment.

Section 950.10(a)(1)E further requires these SCMs, including rainwater harvesting installations, to be designed according to the methodology in the current edition of Rainwater and Land Development or another design manual acceptable to the City of Youngstown and Ohio EPA. This means a homeowner installing a rain barrel or cistern for ordinary residential landscaping faces no city permit or restriction, but a developer relying on rainwater harvesting to satisfy the Comprehensive Stormwater Management Plan required under Section 950.09 must design it to that manual's standards and have it approved by the City of Youngstown Public Works Department as part of the site's SCM package.

Any SCM approved this way is subject to the chapter's ongoing maintenance and inspection requirements under Sections 950.13 and 950.14, and to Public Works' final say on whether a proposed SCM meets the regulation.