What is Low Impact Development?

LID is an innovative land-planning and engineering design strategy for stormwater management meant to lessen the impact of development on stormwater quality and quantity by managing stormwater as close to its original source as possible.

History of LID

The LID concept began in the mid-1980s as an alternative to the more traditional, centralized stormwater Best Management Practices (BMP) used on construction sites and redevelopment projects, such as detention and retention ponds. The drawbacks to these traditional BMPs, combined with increasingly more stringent state and federal environmental water quality regulations, encouraged environmental scientists and engineers to research and develop more sustainable methods for urban areas to manage and treat stormwater.

Edmond Municipal Code

Edmond encourages engineers and developers to incorporate LID practices into their proposed project designs. To assist applicants, the City amended the Municipal Code in October 2009 by adding Section 23.20.050(e) to Title 23:

"If an LID BMP is approved by the City for use on a development site and that BMP is used to decrease and/or offset the required stormwater detention for the site, then an Operations and Maintenance Manual must be provided and the owner responsible for the BMP’s upkeep and maintenance shall be stated on the site plan and plat. The BMP shall be inspected, on an interval to be determined by the City Engineer, not to exceed five years, by an engineer licensed in the State of Oklahoma at the owner’s expense to certify that it is being operated and maintained correctly and that it continues to function as designed. The engineer’s inspection report and certification shall be submitted to the City of Edmond."

Local Examples of LID

Are you interested in learning more about LID practices and how they function? Fortunately, there are several Oklahoma agencies and institutions that maintain online map databases of completed LID installations in Oklahoma and throughout the rest of the world! Please visit their websites to see photos and project descriptions on a variety of LID installations:

• Oklahoma State University’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
• The Oklahoma Water Survey at The University of Oklahoma  

There are also several LID projects located right here in Edmond: