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Jul

25

2024

From The Blog

Town Work Group Shares: Building with Pervious Materials Reduces Flooding and Improves Island Water Quality

A subcommittee of the Town of Kiawah Island’s Marsh Management Work Group has been hard at work looking at ways to encourage the use of pervious paving materials, like pavers and porous concrete, throughout the island. Reducing impervious surfaces will enable more water to penetrate the ground, which means less flooding and contaminated runoff that can pollute the environment. Patrea St. John, a representative from the subcommittee, attended KICA’s July 8 board of directors meeting to deliver a presentation detailing the costs and benefits of utilizing pervious paving for driveways, patios and parking lots.

The presentation showcased an array of pervious driveway paving options: pea gravel driveways bordered with pavers, porous concrete driveways with paver aprons, paver driveways with grass in between the pavers, and more. Community members and regimes who may replace their aging driveway or parking lot are encouraged to consider pervious options, as are those building new homes. 

Patrea noted that the town’s Planning Commission has recommended an ordinance requiring all future new construction and redeveloped driveways and parking lots be constructed using pervious materials. Town Council and residents will begin discussing this potential ordinance with a community workshop (date TBD) and will hear the ordinance twice before considering approval. 

 

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Dive deeper into how pervious surfaces benefit the island, and the marsh ecosystem

Kiawah’s Oceanwoods regime replaced all of the driveways in their neighborhood with pervious pavers and got a group discount equating to an almost 50% cost savings per driveway.