Hamilton County Planning + Development, Stormwater + Infrastructure

Stormwater Drainage System Review and Inspection (and Special Flood Hazard Area permit)

A new commercial building, a new car park or an expansion in unincorporated Hamilton County that adds storm sewer structures, pipe or a detention basin goes through Stormwater + Infrastructure, and the minimum total of $1,311.00 makes this the most expensive site-work review the county charges on a small project. The components are itemised — $125 per storm sewer structure, $2 per linear foot of pipe 12 inch or greater and $624 per detention or retention basin, with a $624 minimum inspection fee, a review fee of 20 per cent of the inspection fee and a 5 per cent technology fee on top — and the sheet explains the derivation, stating that the figures are based on $66 an hour for review and $61 an hour for inspection with additional inspection billed as needed. What the fee buys is unusually broad and worth knowing before treating it as a plan-check charge: the pre-development review meeting, improvement plan review, flood study information, design calculations review, review of detention easement plats and as-builts, the pre-construction meeting, all inspections of public and private storm drainage systems, bonding through punch list, and inspections for one year after the subdivision record plat is recorded. Two things are outside it — review of a HEC-RAS study and any revision after the final improvement plan is approved. The same office administers floodplain management and the Special Flood Hazard Area permit the county lists among its business items, publishing the FEMA elevation certificate, no-rise certification and non-residential dry floodproofing certificate forms, so a business locating in a flood hazard area meets this office even without new drainage work. One provenance note: the retrieved PDF's embedded title metadata carries an older year than the sheet body, which prints effective 1 January 2025; the printed sheet is what is quoted here.