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City to PV: Hire an engineer
by Rick DeClue · News · July 24, 2014
Pedersen Valley residents still wanting answers on flooding issues heard the city council Monday suggest the residents hire an engineer.
Approximately six audience members living on sections of Orange and Sullivan streets representing at least four affected homes spoke at Monday’s city council meeting.
In a periodic conversation with the council and various city staff over several years, the homeowners have maintained their view that the city is responsible for fixing the problem.
The council that night approved a letter to affected homeowners that recommended the residents work together to hire their own engineer to either a) fix the overland flow of excessive storm water through a redesigned swale through rear sections of their lots, or b) construct a storm sewer to direct water to a point where it can discharge into the existing storm water infrastructure – at the homeowners’ cost.
The city maintains that the problem area is private property with no easements for the swale that would allow the city to make the changes or require city maintenance.
The letter also repeats the city’s position that the swale was installed as designed and approved within city requirements at the time the subdivision was built. It maintains that, as lots were sold and individual homes were built, the utility of the swale design was damaged by homebuilder or homeowner actions such as grading, creation of walkout basements on lots not suited for that design, fencing and landscaping that affected water flow on the lots or encroached in the swale and other factors.
The city letter cites language from the subdivision’s covenants that addresses the limits to altering topography in ways that interfere with the flow of storm water.
“And the city is not a party to those restrictive covenants,” Mayor Mark Worrell said. “Those are controlled by the residents.”
Brian Driscoll of 701 W. Orange Street, the first resident to speak Monday, said represented the group of homeowners when he asked the issue be tabled until Worrell excused himself from the discussion due to what Driscoll believes is a conflict of interest.
Worrell, owner of Big Timber Excavating, Inc. has worked as both a contractor and a monitor of improvements in both Pedersen Valley and the adjoining Meadows subdivision.
Driscoll also asked that the mayor not use his position to influence other council members in their further consideration of the matter due to Worrell’s relationship with the developers and the profits or benefits Worrell might receive or expect to receive as a result of those relationships.
Worrell responded by apologizing if he had ever given people reason to be concerned about potential conflicts between his duties as mayor or in his past 20 or so years serving the city as a council member and what he called “my day job.”
“I am allowed to make a living in West Branch,” he said, “but I have never put the interests of what I do above the safely or benefits of helping the citizens of West Branch. I am always under scrutiny.”
The mayor then cited some of his activities during the recent flooding, saying he would not wish those responsibilities on anyone.
“It’s a lot of weight on your shoulders when you’re standing at the corner of Main and Parkside watching your town go under,” he said. “Then your wife calls, telling you you’ve got your own problems.”
“I own three properties in town, two of which flooded,” he said.
He added that his monitoring contract for silt fences and other measures to mitigate runoff from KLM Investment’s Meadows work ended last October, at which time the developer took responsibility for monitoring and maintaining the work.
City Administrator Matt Muckler said the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is responsible for inspection and enforcement of improvements covered by DNR permits covering storm water management.
Kirsten Nelson of 703 W. Orange and Angie Cochran of 801 West Orange supported Driscoll’s overall position that the residents hold the city responsible for the situation.
The group feels that the city was negligent in its up-front approval process, or inspection of improvements during development, or monitoring and maintaining those improvements.
Though Driscoll asked for tabling the matter until Worrell stepped back, another resident told the council was told that tabling the matter would be interpreted as the city washing its hands of the matter and abandoning the group.
Todd Thein, who lives on Sullivan Street, had specifically requested a spot on the agenda in order to make his comments.
Thein acknowledged the city’s effort to date in communicating during the extended attempt to find some resolution, particularly thanking Muckler’s help in his tenure as city administrator since June 2011.
Thein went on to say that this is a situation that, by its nature, requires cooperation. He volunteered to join whatever committee or commission exists or would be formed to help consider these development and drainage challenges.
However, in citing his own experience building his home, Thein mentioned that recent heavy rains entered his basement through an egress window. The only reason that window exists, he said, is because a city building inspector required it since the unfinished basement could be turned into a bedroom.
Thein said he did not like being told what to do with his own property, especially given the recent results of that decision.
One of the key arguments in the city’s letter is that the area in question is private property.
Muckler told the council that the city could look at policy decisions to add as many layers to the approval, inspection and enforcement of residential development as they want.
Worrell said that the usual complaint, though, is that there is too much city “red tape” In the process, and that each layer adds to the cost of construction – costs which are passed straight through to the homebuyers.
City engineer Dave Schechinger of Veenstra and Kimm responded to a request for details about the original storm water management design for Pedersen Valley.
Schechinger said the approach is to design for a five-year event, meaning a 20 percent possibility in any given year. The design appropriately covered topography and watershed characteristics beyond the boundary of the parcel or lots that were approved.
Water flow in from storms in excess of the five-year criteria was to be addressed by overland flow through swales to direct water to collection or intake points.
Schechinger said the design was and remains sufficient. The grading and development were done according to plan and the system works the way it was designed, except where changes occurred that have altered or negated that design, he said.
Council member Brian Pierce said he did not want the audience to leave thinking the city has “washed its hands” of the problem.
Worrell acknowledged there are many problems with storm water in the city, but also said the council has been actively trying to address what they can.
He listed the city’s contribution of money for engineering costs for the construction of the so-called “Hoover Dam” retention structure developed with the National Park Service and other partners. The city has inspected and repaired, or built new storm water infrastructure in several locations in the city and completed substantial creek maintenance work, the mayor noted.
He pointed to the new storm water utility fee that met with considerable public resistance. Two functions of the utility are to systematically focus on storm water problems and possible solutions, and to create a source of funds to act on as many of those projects as possible.
Muckler said the city voluntarily joined the Iowa Storm Water Education Program (ISWEP) and sent several members of the city’s staff for training in best practices and staff cerfication.
He said the city is also looking at potential partnerships for construction of additional flood retention structures outside of the West Branch corporate limits. He said this is something almost unprecedented for a city the size of West Branch.
Worrell said that also on the list is a more-intensive grading plan and top soil requirements for individual lots, as well as greater consideration of storm water issues when developers approach the city with plans for new development.
Schechinger said it is a very complicated issue. Planning for one set of circumstance can affect results when a different set of circumstances presents itself. And no one controls the timing or intensity of any given storm.
At the start of Monday’s discussion, Worrell, Muckler and City Attorney Kevin Olson all requested that anyone wishing to participate in the discussion follow the council’s traditional requirements of providing signup information in order to be recognized and limiting their comments to three minutes per speaker.
This request was made after the May 19 council meeting, the most recent addressing this situation, evolved into back and forth that the council found difficult to manage or provide good responses.
Worrell took responsibility for that previous slip in decorum and Monday’s participants.
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