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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998 01 26 Informational Item A COMMISSION AGENDA ITEM A REGULAR CONSENT INFORMATIONAL X January 26, 1998 Meeting /J~ MGR.//(wJ1o . Authorization REQUEST: The Community Development Department - Administration Division advises the City Commission that staffwill review the City's regulations relating to stormwater management. PURPOSE: The purpose of this Board item is to inform the Commission that staff will be reviewing the relevant City Codes pertaining to wetlands, flood prone and floodplain areas and the problem of flooding and will prepare a report with recommendations at the next Commission meeting. CONSIDERATIONS: lIIr Staff has received a Statement under Commission Seat # 3 and Mf~mo dated January 11, 1998 by Commissioners Martinez and Miller expressing concern with and a desire for staff to review and where necessary recommend changes to regulations relating to stormwater management. * The City's Comprehensive Plan has policies that discourage development within wetland areas, specifically the provisions of the Land Use Element and the Conservation Element of the Comprehensive Plan. * The City has requirements in the City Code relating to the regulation of development within wetlands and floodprone areas, specifically: City Code Chapter 8 "Flood Damage Prevention"; City Code Chapter 9 "Land Development" Sec. 9-46(2)p. q. u.; Sec. 9-73(9); Sec. 9-101(a)(2); Sec.9-105; Sec. 9-106; Sec. 9-241. JANUARY 26, 1998 INFORMATION AGENDA ITEM A Page 2 FUNDING: None required. IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE: As directed by the City Manager. ATTACHMENTS: Memo from Commissioner Robert Miller to Commissioners dated January 11, 1998. Statement under Commission Seat # 3 by Commissioner Martinez with attached article. COMMISSION ACTION: None required. .' FROM: Commissioner Robert S. Miller 11 January 1998 SUBJECT: Memorandum for the Record TO: Commissioners of Winter Springs On the morning of 26 December 1997, rainfall reports for the Orlando area during the preceding 24 hours were, that approxi- mately 2.2 inches of rain had fallen. Local news that morning about flooding showed the impact of inadequate planning, POor codes, and rapid development elsewhere in our State - and in places where it should not have happened. We, as Commissioners, owe it to our citizens to provide, not only adequate, not only the best, but the most superior development standards possible. To do any less, is to court a disaster as almost occurred here in Winter Springs, along No Name Creek and Sailfish Road that morn- ing. For several hours between midnight on 25 December and noon the 26th, two hundred yards of the east end of Sailfish Road was beneath three feet of flowing water, and rising water threatened over forty expensive homes. Unable to flow through the new more restricted flood plain; now designated -Passive Park area, No Name Creek simply overflowed its banks, and unmindful of existent codes, ordinaces, contractor/developer assurances, and engineer- ing studies by the best paid flood analysis experts, found itself a new channel - flowing westward along Sailfish Road and thence northwards for two hundred yards along Mockingbird Road. A visit early that morning to the south-west areas of Winding Hollow, adjacent to No Name Creek, indicated the homes there too were standing in a lake, while several roads were impassable. Luckily for our city the rains that morning stopped around sun- rise, otherwise the creek would have innundated several hundred homes. And, had the predicted high winds materialized and knocked down trees into the creek channel, the flooding could have become a major disaster. Our codes were implemented during an earlier era of laissez- faire, of develop everything in sight, and leave no land unuti- lized. Winter Springs and the cities around us are now becoming mature communities in which we must more exhaustively study the impact of new construction on already existent communities. Cur- rently we already have flood prone areas in both the east and western areas of our city, and we must not accept that such catastrophe's are inevitable every few years - just because some rains came. Consequently, I would like to see the city develop more evelopment codes along all existent creeks, water- water courses in our city. I would also like an s to how events at Sailfish Road came to pass on 26 what eds to be done about it? Robe '. Statement under Commission Seat #3: Our Code of Ordinances repeats throughout the following theme: lhe City of Winter Springs while undertaking zoning, planning, and development activities should be first and foremost cagnizant of considering the best interest of the he:Ilth. s:1fety, and welfare of the citizens of the City". HOWEVER, WE CONTINUE TO PRETEND mAT mE POSSIBILITY OF FUTURE RISKS DO Nor EXIST WHEN WE PERMIT DEVELOPERS TO PROCEED WITH PROJEcrS mAT CLEARLY CAN BE CONSTRUED AS A FU11JR1STIC RISK TO LIFE AND PROPERlY. We continue to allow developers to submit preliminary plans for the development of some; not all areas for which no permit should be issued.. Our City Code, Chapter 9-46 (a) CLEARLY AND CONCISELY STATES: "Prcapplication approval proccc1urc. It is rccommcndcc1 that any devcloper contemplating sulxmiding Iancl in the city consult with city pLanning, building and engineering officials before laying out any such plan. The above rd'erencec:l officials shall advise such person in the preparation of any such plan particularly as regards the requirements of these regulations" This clearly infers that our staff is in a position to modify certain applications. rather than allowing a developer to proceed until such time when they have reached the point of no return, and we find ourselves in a no win position awe deny such development as it happened right here very recently. Filling wetlands and developing on flood plain zones will cause future water nm-oifs to go elsewhere, since the natu.r.:tl collection zones havc been eradicated. Where do we think these waters will got (See Sentinel articles that include recent statements by government sta.ff persons after the horse was let out of Lhe barn) A recent statement was made before this forum and accepted as gospel. that run-off waters in the llte:l of Howell Creek and the Reserves would be absorbed by the lower ground levels to the north of S.R. ~34. However, there was no mention that this road might be raised while being widened (as was the approach to the cast towards Tusk:1"illa Road) and that the north side of the road is part of the Vtsioning (new development) program and will be built on thereby reducing the ability of run-off waters to collect there. Sec. 9-46 2. Preliminary plan supporting data: (n) Natural features, including lakes, marshes or swamps, watercourses, and other pertinent features; wooded areas. (0) Existing contours at one-foot intervals based on U. S. Coast and Geodetic Datum for the tract to be subdivided and, where pr:lctiC<lble Ch"tending twenty-five (25) feet beyond the tract l::oundazy. (u) ................. ............................... ..................... ........ ............. All elevations shall. be based on U. S. Coast and Geodetic Datum. The applicant shall provide the location and information of the hundred-year flood elevation ~Iam.e to the proposed site. based on the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) maps and establish the wetlands boundary by the approved governing ageocies......_._.__....__. . ...._.. ....n u___. See. 9-49 -'''''_u. .. __Appro.,-al of the preliminary plan by the City Council shall not be construed as authority for the sale of lots in reference to the preliminary pIan. NOR as authority for obtaining building permits. NOR for the recording of a plat, NOR for the installation of required improvements. The point that I am ttying to make is that our staff has the opportunity to review and discuss development projects with developers. ct., al. and should make e:very effort not to permit any person to submit plans after preliminary discussions and presentations that would ultimately come back to haunt us by translating a denial into an obligation on the part of the ta:'(payers. Therefor, I am requesting this commission direct the City Manager to te"iiew and prepare amendments to the current Code of Ordirumces, dated 1989 whereby it would be made cle:lt to one and all that the City of Winter Springs shall not approve development pl:lIlS for any area within the geographic boundaries of the City which intrude into wetfunds and or where an encor.lchment to the existing floodplain zone woul/i take place. It is my belief after severa! contact with State and Feder:1J agencies that there is not an agency that would not support such an action. I must also add that in all fairness there are many other ai'eas in the Code of Ordinances that need to be brought to date by amendment and/or other means , but truly be~e that as we coaEiwe ~-etOfl'Rlent planning, this area needs attention now. . Thank you and God Bless. FI~od d~d not have to happen Drainage, design In the wake of December's rain, ""'0 .....1:..... .~.-.....: are blamed at the engineers wh~ designed ~e 7- ' '. ;~:- . year~ld commuruty, the builders Blackberry Creek who built it and the governments that granted permits for its devel- By Lenny Savino opment ret\tse to take responsibili- ty. "The city and the state failed to calculate Where the water coming into the development could prop- erly be disposed of," said Tommy Tompkins, the development's first builde~ "The engineer on the pro- ject submitted plans, and they said the plans provided adequate off- site drainage." Documents show that the sub- division, built in 1992 on a flood plain next to the St. Cloud Canal, was granted an unconditional state drainage permit indicating the land had "good flood protection and relief from rainstorm inconve- . nience." drainage plan. The city 'admits it. : The city of St. Cloud granted routinely doesn't consider flooding Tompkins a building permit with- out studying Blackberry Creek's ~ OF 'nE SEHTlNEL STN'F S't CLoUD - Low building elevations. and a faulty drainage system are what nearly sank parts of the Blackberry Creek subdivi. sion, officials said. Less than 1 foot of extra till be- neath the soggy St. Cloud commu- nity's homes and streets. as well as a properly built drainage ditch, could have prevented recent floods. Blackberry Creek's poor drain- age resulted in days of pumping . water out of the 160-home subdivi- sion's drainage ditch as heavy rains Overwhelmed the develop- ment's storm drains for the second tim~. in four years. . ...-.---------.-... . ........--- -. ... ....- DRAINAGE from C-1 potential when it approves per- mits. . "I'm not sure that our engineers would have caught anything like that since that isn't part of their re- view," City Manager Paul Wetzel said. "The overall permitting for stormwater management is through the South Florida Water Management District." Water management officials de- fend Blackberry Creek's drainage plans and deny responsibility for the community's flooding problem. "We can't Cmd anything wrong with the original permit," said Bill Stimmel. the service center direc. tor for the water district. "The problem here was we had more than 10 inches of rain within a few days during a normally dry month. The system wasn't designed to handle that kind of once-in-a-l0o- year event." Wetzel said that when Blackber- ry Creek's permit was granted the city employed five engineers. "B':lt two of them were for the electric plant, and the other ~ usually dealt with street construction, sew- er and water lines, sidewalks and things of that nature." Although building on a flood plain is common - as long as the b\l:~ding elevations are suffiCIently TlE 0A1AAD0 SCNTlNEL' Please see DRAINAGE, c-s ---"-"-"'-. . .... "..-- .s ~r. / //O/9'~ Devel9pe(s to blame for flooding in park, Water ~uthority contends ,F'LOOD frol1) D-1 Southwest, Florida Water Manage- , ment District in 1968 that the ele- Cherry Lake In tlrn.e-to stern nOod- valion developers wanted _ 99 Ing. reet above' sea level - was 3 reet ~ater Authority orticlals said below' what was needed to avoid they opened the dam soon aner nooding. :.' . the Dec. 11 request but sald'the Eight years earlier, the report park's troubles can be traced. to said,nenrby'. Lake Minnehahn re- the roots of the mobile home tie- acheQ an elevation of 99.04 feel. velopmenl Still, ,water management orticinls !.Robert Taylor, Water Authority apPIi>\ted the Emerald Lakes con- exeeuUve' dJrector, 'said the au- struclion at 99 feel. thorlty Informed state regulators ''Yoti:ve got' the taU wagging ~rore Emerald Litkes opened 30 ~;,the dog then," Taylor said. "It aU Years ago that the park was being comes back to they built there,lm- bUllt on a flood-prone weUand at properly.'" an elevation toO'low"hfbenear so' Rogers .said the mobile home many lakes. . ,park, raised its roads 6 Inches In II report to county commis- about two y.ears ago, and she said sloners, Taylor pohited out, that there is a"possibility they may the Water Authority' warned the raise them again. .. . - But roads were not the only problem in south Lake County on . Friday. At the Pnlatlakaha Recreation Arell overlooking Lake Palatlaka- ha, watc1' crested over the canal rencin~ wilh slamling water sur- rOllnclinl{ I':trk Pals PloYRround. 'tarlhcr south, the rising waters hnve gobbled up private beaches lInd dOCks wilh abandon. "Our t10ck is completely under . waler," said Candy Mertlng, whose home fronls the southern shores of Crescent Lake. "Last summer we had at least 20 feet, but we don't have any beach now. I've never seen anything like it." Correspondent Teni Coole contributed to this report.