Community acceptance of a stormwater utility program is the key to successful implementation. This chapter provides a discussion of methods to gain community acceptance through public education, interaction, and participation. A community acceptance program should start with the preparation of a plan defining a public involvement team consisting of municipal staff responsible for the stormwater management program. The team can be expanded to a stormwater task force or stakeholder committee to provide valuable links to the public early in the planning stages. Preliminary tasks that should be included in the community acceptance plan are an assessment of the community's stormwater needs and the development of a mission statement for the stormwater program. Finding internal and external champions of the program can be helpful at this stage. The program plan should consider public information targets such as elected officials, opinion leaders and focus groups, and prepare for interaction with the news media. Since it is important to "do your homework" before addressing the public, the public acceptance program plan should identify required research and provide a public information schedule.

Gaining community acceptance means understanding the needs of the community in all aspects of stormwater management. Existing information related to stormwater needs should be gathered from all sources including complaint records, stormwater and maintenance staff experience, and previous studies and field measurements. This information can identify problem areas that can be ranked to define a priority list. Other elements of stormwater management that may be included in this analysis are administration, federal stormwater permit compliance, engineering, planning, regulation, enforcement, operations/maintenance, monitoring, and capital improvements. Based upon existing information, the stormwater needs inventory can be expanded by including specific public data gained though public surveys and workshops.

Two community acceptance and education methods are discussed in detail:

1. Stormwater Task Force/Stakeholder Process - A stormwater task force is made up of interested citizens who consider the stormwater management program important. A special type of task force is a stakeholder committee that includes public, commercial, governmental, and environmental groups or individuals affected by the program. The stakeholder committee is facilitated to achieve consensus on the goals of the program as well as each product of the community acceptance process. The benefits of a stakeholder committee include the preliminary distribution of information to a smaller, more focused group, meaningful feedback from representatives of the public prior to full public distribution, and the development of a support group.
2. Public Opinion Surveys - Public opinion surveys are methods of obtaining information by surveying a small sample of the public through telephone or mail-in questionnaires. While it is widely believed that such surveys provide widespread consensus, the surveys actually only gage the direction of public opinion, measure the intensity of opinion, demonstrate areas of support for the program, identify program elements which need to be reconsidered, and identify areas requiring further public education efforts.

Other public information tools discussed include one-on-one briefings with elected officials, neighborhood meetings, speakers bureaus, media relationships, educational videos, dedicated stormwater phone lines, newspaper inserts, brochures, utility bill notices, public workshops with elected officials, and public service announcements. Examples of some of these tools are provided.

• 3.1 Introduction
• 3.2 Public Awareness Plan
• 3.3 Assessing Community Stormwater Needs
• 3.4 Stormwater Task Force/Stakeholder Process
• 3.5 Public Opinion Surveys
• 3.6 Other Public Information Tools
• 3.7 References