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Reasons to Deny 3685 New Brighton Road Subdivision <br />Wetland Protection <br />Easement Vacation <br />Suitability and Road Safety on Thom Drive <br />Tree and Habitat destruction <br />Developers <br />Property Sizes <br />Contrary to City Vision <br />Wetland protection: <br />The wetland protection plan in inadequate. It will put more water and sediment directly into the wetland and does not include a reasonable maintenance nor <br />replacement plan. <br />With the current owner moving soon, the applicant not being from the city and having a poor history of follow through in the area (not completing the <br />grading plan on the Thom development, erosion issues, etc), as well as unknown future owners taking on the physical and administrative tasks of <br />maintaining the basin system. Plus, the very significant financial burden of protecting our shared wetlands falling on a single household. There is reasonable <br />concern that this won't be well done in the out years and the city will be stuck with a bill and/or the wetland will be damaged. <br />Weak Maintenance Plan <br />The homeowner of the newly proposed Lot 1 will be solely responsible for inspection, maintenance, and when the time comes, rebuilding the stormwater <br />filtration basins... in perpetuity.. The tasks for inspections and maintenance read like municipality and large organization tasks - logs, reporting, inspections, <br />etc. City council members inform me there are no other agreements like this within the city with single homeowners. <br />During the planning commission meeting that this was passed, the developer incorrectly stated that the RCWD would be responsible for inspections. While <br />the RCWD is able to come and perform inspections and make fixes - billing back to the homeowner and/or the county/city if the homeowner is unable to <br />pay, the RCWD indicate these inspections are purely "complaint driven" and there is no regular inspection included int the agreement. Given the non-public <br />location of these basins, complains are unlikely even when grossly deserved. In effect, the untrained and biased homeowner is judge, jury, and executioner <br />as it relates to a basin system that is protecting a large city resource. The city is not even party to the maintenance agreement; though rebuild costs <br />eventually be backstopped by the county/city if/when the homeowners fail in their significant duty to protect the city's shared natural resources. These are to <br />be maintained in perpetuity - at some point, the homeowners will fail in their duties to protect the city's natural resources, or fail ensure their they are <br />maintained, safe, don't stagnate and turn into mosquito nests, and remain effective? Again, with only self-inspection the conflict of interest is large and risk <br />to our city unnecessary. <br />There are no notes in the plans about ensuring the swales on both sides of the houses and driveway, upper-most catchment basin, and under-driveway <br />piping is maintained as-is in perpetuity by this homeowner or subsequent homeowners. At the least, these should be included in the maintenance agreement. <br />Ineffective Basin locations <br />A hydrologist that specializes in groundwater-surface water interaction at a federal science agency reviewed the plans and he indicates that almost none of <br />the water that hits the driveways would infiltrate and none of it would make it into the southerly basin and, instead, the water would flow south of the basin <br />"creating erosion and potential water quality issues and additional sedimentation in the wetland" for lot 1 as well as added flow to the street (which is not <br />supposed to be allowed). This scientist further notes that depending on the Lot 1 house design, water hitting that roof would flow unimpeded down the <br />extreme slope[11] at it's edge and directly into wetland or onto the driveway (which we just noted, does not direct water to the basins). He notes the basins, <br />particularly the southern one, are simply not located in the right places and appear to be crammed into the available location rather than an effective location <br />(this statement further supported by the RCWD comments). The developer's submitted plans agree with this assessment based on their hydrological flow <br />marks showing water that hits the lot 1 driveway running south down a steeply graded driveway (7.7 and 8.3 grade on driveway) away from the stormwater <br />storage basin, then go down an even steeper dirt slope (steepened to allow for driveway) unfettered into wetland. <br />I contacted RCWD directly about the poor locations of the basins and the clear erosion issues in the plan. I also asked if they took the 2012 steepening of <br />the grade into account. The RCWD indicated they only review what is provided them by applicants and/or the consultant the developer did not make them <br />aware of the 2012 changes. They further did not review this plan for erosion or sedimentation controls beyond the construction period - only max <br />Page 1 of 12Reasons to Deny 3685 New Brighton Road Subdivision <br />3/9/2018http://joefederer.com/subdivision/Reasons.html