Voluntary contribution schemes can reduce compliance costs for developers and increase stormwater quality improvements. Local government can learn from each other, and as a result achieve better stormwater treatment outcomes from new developments and deliver broader community benefits.
The drivers
Delivering more effective WSUD outcomes on-site and across the catchment by building on existing frameworks:
- Moonee Valley City Council introduced a WSUD planning policy in 2014, which requires developers to meet their stormwater requirements on-site. (You can read about the policy in the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities case study.) Building on this policy, the council implemented an offset scheme as part of its long term plan for its MV2040 Strategy.
- While the development industry is improving its application of WSUD, many developers struggle to achieve more than 80% compliance on-site using a rainwater tank. And they are less confident about alternative on-site initiatives that could achieve the remaining requirements.
- The council learned from the experience of the City of Kingston, which introduced a Stormwater Quality Contribution Payments scheme in 2017.
More information, including a downloadable case study (PDF) is available on the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities website.