Stormwater management in eugene oregon

Stormwater run-off has made its way to the forefront of public planning and policy and even affects commercial and residential landscape planning, remodeling, and new home building. The Federal Government is enforcing the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) under the Federal Clean Water Act and this is guiding local municipalities planning and building codes. The City of Eugene and many other surrounding cities in the Willamette Valley require a certain portion of your property to be pervious (to allow water to pass through to the ground). Generally, the "footprint" of the home or building is considered an impervious (does not allow water to pass through to the ground) surface and cannot be more than a certain percentage of the building lot size. Concrete driveways, patios, and walkways also count against the total allowed impervious area and are limited to how large these features can be based on the total lot size.  Now, green roofs can help offset this "footprint" and create additional pervious area, but this is not the only way to design your landscape and home or building and still follow the guidelines imposed by your local municipality. Did you know that landscape pavers are considered pervious and do not count against the total impervious area allowed per tax/maplot? Graham Landscape and Design LLC has a variety of design techniques and materials that are highly functional and aesthetically pleasing in the landscape, but still count as pervious areas in your Eugene Oregon landscape design.

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This permeable paver driveway inlay is a creative solution Graham Landscape and Design developed to allow for a large enough driveway for the scale of the house, but to avoid exceeding the impervious limits to this small infill building lot.

This home landscape in Coburg, Oregon previously had a gravel driveway. The City of Coburg would not allow any additional impervious area to this building lot. The work-around that Graham Landscape and Design LLC developed was a completely permeable driveway, paver patio, and paver walkway.

Permeable and even standard pavers fit within most municipalities definitions of pervious surfaces. The idea is that these types of hardscapes allow any pollutants to reach the ground an be filtered before entering any local streams or tributaries. Since many driveways and streets drain directly to our local waterways, anything we can do to capture this run-off onsite will have a beneficial effect on the overall health of our communities.

Graham Landscape and Design LLC understands that some of these changes to your landscape do not fit into every budget. This is why we have invested the time to become a Belgard Authorized Contractor.

We can offer special payment terms through a Belgard financing program. Many of these terms are 0% interest/ same as cash if paid within 12 months.

Stay tuned for more ways to make your home or business landscape more environmentally friendly and gorgeous at the same time...