Act 167 Stormwater Management Plans

General Information

The York County Planning Commission is responsible for preparation of stormwater management plans (Act 167 plans) for each designated watershed in York County, Pennsylvania. Act 167 Stormwater Management Plans are required by the Storm Water Management Act of 1978 to provide sound engineering standards and criteria which can be incorporated into local codes and ordinances. These plans ensure proper management of stormwater runoff from new development on a watershed basis. Although the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, Act 247 authorizes municipalities to voluntarily prepare ordinances that may include provisions for stormwater management, Act 167 Plans require ordinance adoption that considers stormwater effects outside of municipal boundaries. Once the county adopts an Act 167 Stormwater Management Plan, the municipality must adopt stormwater controls that are consistent with the Plan and the developers within the watershed must comply with the standards and criteria of the approved watershed plan.

The York County Planning Commission staff is currently working on preparing and updating Act 167 Stormwater Management Plans for all nine (9) designated watersheds in York County. Two (2) of the nine (9) watersheds have completed Act 167 Stormwater Management Plans. The staff has also begun the first stage for two (2) other Act 167 Plans with five (5) other watersheds yet to be prepared. In addition, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) recommends that the Act 167 Plans be evaluated and/or updated every five (5) years.

The role of the County Planning staff is project management and data collection/correlation for Act 167 Watershed Stormwater Management Plans. Because of the technical nature of the plans, engineering consultant services are obtained to do hydrologic modeling and plan preparation based on the planning commission staff’s collected data. There are four (4) basic stages to the plan preparation:

During the first stage of the plan preparation (Data collection and Analysis stage) the County Planning Commission staff provides planning information (development trends) and GIS layers to the consultant (the GIS layers include but are not limited to; soils, geology, zoning, flood plains, etc.). The staff is responsible for gathering field information which mainly consists of obtaining data regarding "significant obstructions." These "significant obstructions" are bridges, culverts, pipes, dams. etc. that may impede the flow of the watercourse. In the field, staff gathers data for these "significant obstructions" within the watershed consisting of the following: type of obstruction, shape of the obstruction, the material of the obstruction (concrete, PVC/PVE, etc.), the width and depth of the stream, the dimensions of the obstruction, the land use adjacent to these obstructions, geomorphologic data of the water course at the obstruction, digital images, and other significant information (the location of any riprap, the condition of the bridge/culvert, etc.). These measurements are then used to develop the hydrologic modeling.

To check the status of the Act 167 Stormwater Management Planning in York County view this MAP. (531 KB)

See the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Website for more information.

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