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Much of Bettendorf's proposed new stormwater management ordinance is based on similar regulations put in place by Davenport two years ago.

But despite the wholesale borrowing of Davenport's stormwater ordinance language, one key section – requiring developers to amend new residential lots to absorb rainfall and provide homeowners with healthy organic topsoil – never made it into the two initial drafts circulated by Bettendorf city staff to city council members.

Why the soil infiltration standards for new residential developments went "missing" from the Davenport ordinance to the Bettendorf stormwater draft rules isn't clear.