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Current stormwater green infrastructure (GI) design typically uses static principles, even though long-term monitoring indicates that these systems are anything but static. Infiltration is an active process during a storm event, evapotranspiration restores soil storage capacity between events, and there are seasonal and annual variations of components in the hydrologic cycle. As municipalities adopt GI as a stormwater management strategy and embrace smart development approaches, it is important to optimize siting, improve construction economics, and efficiently maintain GI. Considering the dynamic nature of stormwater GI and the associated hydrologic processes will move design forward. Examples from southeastern Pennsylvania rain gardens and tree trenches are used to demonstrate concepts, although the framework is more generally applicable.