Lewisville, TX SWPPP & Stormwater Requirements

What does Lewisville require for SWPPP compliance?

In Lewisville, a grading permit is required for any clearing, grading, grubbing, filling, stockpiling, excavating, cutting, or other earthwork — subject to limited exemptions in the code — and activities are limited to the area and scope identified on the approved plan submitted to the Engineering Department and authorized by the approved permit.

In Lewisville, a stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWPPP) is required for all construction sites regardless of the size of the area of land disturbance, and the developer, builder, or property owner must prevent or abate the runoff of dirt, soil, and other erodible materials by designing and installing temporary and permanent erosion controls as required by the Drainage Criteria Manual and the Code of Ordinances. The City of Lewisville MS4 holds an active TCEQ authorization — permit number TXR040059, authorization type MS4 Level 3 — with permit coverage that began December 17, 2008. Zero acres is the trigger — the smallest job in the city carries the same plan obligation as the largest.

Any earthwork means a grading permit

The verb list is deliberately long — if machinery touches the ground, assume the permit applies and check the exemptions second.

The plan, and what happens when it fails

Lewisville requires erosion control plans to be submitted as part of an engineering site plan or a separately submitted grading plan, and erosion control devices and techniques must be installed prior to the commencement of construction, maintained during construction, and not removed until vegetation is established and the construction area is stabilized. Upon observation or notification of any erosion control violation in Lewisville, the city has the authority to issue a stop work order until the violations are corrected, violations must be corrected within seven days of written notification, and failure to correct them results in revocation of the development permit or building permit or withholding of a certificate of occupancy or final acceptance of the project. Install before construction, and cure fast when cited — the city's leverage runs through the certificate of occupancy.

Controls that pay back

In Lewisville, stormwater drainage runoff mitigation measures or best management practices may qualify for stormwater drainage utility fee credits. Good stormwater work can show up on the utility bill — worth raising at design, not after.

Trees are marked, fenced, and independently checked

Before grading or construction in Lewisville, the developer must clearly mark all protected trees to be preserved, erect protective fencing at least four feet high around each protected tree or group of protected trees to be preserved and maintain it at all times during construction, and have a third-party inspection conducted verifying on-site compliance with the approved tree preservation plan, with the results submitted to and approved by the city. The third-party inspection is written into the code — the tree protection gets verified by someone whose job is exactly that.

The state permit still applies

The city's rules sit on top of the state's, not in place of them. A stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWP3) must be prepared and implemented before construction activities begin. TXR150000's standard schedule requires construction site inspections at least once every 14 calendar days and within 24 hours of the end of a storm event of 0.5 inches or greater. The city's zero-floor rule and the state permit run together for the life of the disturbance.

Inspections and the record

The operator owns the inspection record from first disturbance to final stabilization. Terradyne provides routine SWPPP inspection reports with cloud-based client access. See SWPPP Inspections for how the program works, and Silt Fence Installation for the perimeter the reviewers will look at first.

Check before you mobilize

Ordinances and city standards get revised; confirm the current documents with the city before you mobilize. For other North Texas cities, start at Local Compliance.