Best Management Practices General Information

The city requires Best Management Practices (BMPs) for new construction and redevelopment in order to treat stormwater runoff from a site. A requirement for inspections was added to ensure the proper functioning and maintenance of BMPs. The BMP requirements are currently an addendum to the city's Drainage Criteria Manual, Volume 2.  

The program requires the owner of a new development with a permanent BMP to enter into a Maintenance Agreement (MA) with the City of Colorado Springs, ensuring the owner will inspect and maintain their BMP. The MA binds the owner and all future owners in perpetuity to maintain their BMP and gives the city the authority to maintain the BMP, if the owner fails to do so, at the owner's expense.  

The owner is responsible for submitting an annual inspection and copies of all inspection and maintenance forms by May 31st of each year to the City of Colorado Springs.  

BMP Operations & Maintenance Classes

View training classes on stormwater management, erosion, and plan development here.

Operations and Maintenance of Permanent BMPs

Since 2002, the city has required BMPs for new construction or redevelopment in order to treat stormwater runoff from the site and for required maintenance of the BMPs. In 2008, a requirement for inspections was added to ensure the BMPs are working properly and being properly maintained. The program is currently an addendum to the city's Drainage Criteria Manual, Volume 2.

The program requires the owner of a new development with a permanent BMP to enter into a Maintenance Agreement (MA) with the City of Colorado Springs ensuring the owner will inspect and maintain their BMP. The MA binds the owner and all future owners in perpetuity to maintain their BMP and gives the city the authority to maintain the BMP if the owner fails to at the owner expense.

The owner is also responsible for submitting an annual inspection and copies of all inspection and maintenance forms by May 31st of each year to the City of Colorado Springs.

BMP Operations and Maintenance Class:

For a list of training classes please click here.

The IM plan consists of the following documents:

  • Statement of Authority document
  • Title Sheet - Stormwater Best Management Practices Inspection and Maintenance Plan
  • Appendix A - Description of Stormwater Facility and Inspection and Maintenance Procedure
  • Appendix B - BMP Facility SOPs (for each type of facility)
  • Appendix C - Inspection Form for each facility
  • Appendix D - Maintenance Form for each type of facility
  • Appendix E - Annual Inspection and Maintenance Reporting Form
  • Appendix F - Erosion and Stormwater Quality Control Plan/As-Builts (include as-builts once available)
  • Appendix G - BMP Maintenance Cost Estimates
  • Appendix H - PE Certification (once certification available).

All documents can be downloaded by clicking on the appropriate link for the type of BMP being proposed below.

For best results in opening the following documents, use Internet Explorer. An error occurs when using Mozilla Firefox.

All documents are included in each BMP link below:

Note: If proposed BMP is not listed, owners must create their own SOP, Inspection, and Maintenance forms. Please contact Joel Mackey at jmackey@springsgov.com for more information.

Attention: As of May 2014 the city will not accept the Maintenance Agreement Worksheet when submitting the Inspection and Maintenance plan. Please note that that the Maintenance Agreement Worksheet has been replaced by a Statement of Authority document (SOA). The SOA will need to be completed by the owner and notarized. Please submit the hard copy original SOA when submitting a new Inspection and Maintenance plan. The information on the SOA document will be used to prepare the maintenance agreement.

Stormwater Maintenance Agreement (For Reference Only)

PE Certification Checklist Guides      

PE Certification Checklist for Constructed Wetland Basins (CWB)

PE Certification Checklist for Sand Filter Extended Detention Basin (SFB)

PE Certification Checklist for Modular Block Porous Pavement (MBP)

PE Certification Checklist for Porous Pavement Detention (PPD)

PE Certification Checklist for Retention Ponds (RP)

PE Certification Checklist for Porous Landscape Detention (PLD)