Increasing development opportunities in the Bridge Street District, where a significant amount of the City’s utility infrastructure already exists, will allow a more efficient use of the City’s existing water, sewer, and stormwater systems. As additional development and redevelopment occurs in the Bridge Street District, the City and individual developers will determine how infrastructure improvements will be completed. As part of the Vision Plan, the City’s existing water, sewer, and stormwater systems were determined to be generally adequate to serve the Bridge Street District, with a few relatively minor improvements.
Stormwater Management
The intensity of development necessary to create a vital, walkable urban core meant that Dublin’s traditional stormwater management strategy would not be consistent with the Vision Principles. Rather than setting aside significant land areas to collect and treat stormwater, as may be appropriate in more suburban settings there may be opportunities to provide alternative stormwater management techniques. To identify these opportunities, the City tasked a consultant team from CDM to explore more sustainable, nontraditional best management practices while still meeting the applicable requirements of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) for water quality, as well as the City’s requirements for water quantity control (where applicable). The analysis concluded that stormwater management can be fully integrated throughout the Bridge Street District at build-out, but depending on construction phasing and the location of the stormwater management facilities, temporary facilities may be required. As a follow on project the City engaged Tetra Tech to develop a new stormwater design manual to provide standards for nontraditional stormwater management facilities such as permeable pavement, green roofs, rain gardens, and rainwater harvesting that can be directly integrated into site design and architecture.
Water Distribution System
The water distribution system study completed by EMH&T determined that the existing water distribution system – including main water lines and water tower capacity – was sufficient to service the future redevelopment of the Bridge Street District. This is principally because the City has made strategic improvements to the water system throughout the years as road improvements and other important development was completed to provide adequate water service and fire flow to support the build-out conditions of the Bridge Street Corridor. Much of this effort was completed as part of the 2007 Community Plan. The few areas identified as having less than desired levels of service (while maintaining the minimum standards) are expected to be improved with future development.
Sanitary Sewer System
The sanitary sewer system evaluation by EMH&T identified any critical needs for system improvement based on the proposed land uses and densities of the Bridge Street Corridor Vision Plan. Similar to the findings for the water distribution system study, the sanitary sewer system analysis revealed no immediate improvements resulting from new development and redevelopment of the Bridge Street District. Any areas that have been identified as less than desired levels of service are expected to be improved with future development.
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