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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1979 09 18 Regular ----. e TE LEPHONE (305) 327-1800 e . . ~ September 18, 1979 TO: Mayor/Council REFERENCE: Tuscawilla, Unit 4. Attached are two letters from Clark, Dietz and Associates regarding Tuscawilla, Unit 4. One letter deals with Unit Four in general and the other with Northern Way and suggests some monitoring wells to help establish flow direction. Mr. Conklin will attend the Council Meeting and be prepared to discuss drainage/road problems. Sincerely, WINTER SPRINGS RR/ j . Ene 10 sure s : 2. - e e The City has been experiencing significant problems of concern to us all on the Streets, etc. accepted for maintenance. This is intended as a summary of measures that we recommend to mini- mize the re-occurrence of those kinds of problems in future developments. These recommendations have been previously given verbally to the City and some of them have been previously pre- sented in writing. 1) The City needs full time day by day, on the job construction inspection by a City Inspector of all these street and drain- age and utility systems during the construction to inspect and follow up on the many matters we point out and he sees are required. Construction Engineering Plans are not the end of the process and changes, etc. always are required until comple- tion of the construction. We have for years approved engineer- ing plans utilizing Standard Provisos of Engineering Approval (copy enclosed). These Standard Provisos give the City the right to require the use of soil cement base instead of lime~ rock where higher groundwater conditions are determined to exist during the construction and to require the installation of underdrains of size and at locations determined needed in the field. There are also other beneficial provisos in these standards, which, along with soil cement base and underdrains, if comprehensively applied, would have eliminated most of the problems currently being experienced. This type of field inspection control and follow up is a common way of addressing the problems and as an example, is the way it has been done for years by Seminole County. 2) Subdivision regulations or other City codes and enforcement procedures need to be upgraded in several areas as follows: A) Provisions need to be added requiring developers to submit along with engineering plans the results of comprehensive soils explorations along the proposed roadways and studies by approved soils engineers on the type of base construction; need, size and location of underdrains; and elevation of street grades including the depth of cuts. Consideration should be given to establishing criteria for use of underdrains and for limiting depths of cuts in some soil types. Also, if the City requests it during construction, additional soils engineering studies and recommendations should be pro~ vided. B) Cities and Counties have historically been concerned primarily with the roads and systems that are dedicated to them for maintenance. Therefore, they have not required submission of housing siting and elevation, and lot grading and drainage on the individually, privately owned lots. This is then left primarily to the developer and builder to jointly solve. Recently in Winter Springs that has not turned out satisfactorily and has caused difficulty (example is Tuscawilla Unit VII). -2- e To remedy the problem, the City could either require the preparation and submission of complete lot grading and drainage plans along with the final engineering of public improvements; or it is sometimes handled by municipalities by requiring later submission of that information for review and approval by the building department in connection with the issuance of individual building permits for the homes. In light of the recent occurence of this prolem, we recom- mend the submission of this data along with the final street and other engineering in order to get a more comprehensive review of the matter at one time. e C) The City needs to either delay on the acceptance of the streets for maintenance until home building driveways, swale finish grading and grassing, and total system construction is complete so the total system can be inspected and its performance can be better evaluated; or the acceptance of the streets, etc. for maintenance (and the acceptance of a maintenance bond) needs to carry forward some of the Standard Provisos of Engineering Approval (or other similar conditions)into the maintenance bond period. This would allow the City to require the developer to remedy some of these problems that turn up during that maintenance bond period. A maintenance bond is simply a guarantee of good materials and workmanship and legally does not speak to satisfactory performance in any other way. In many cases, when streets are being accepted for maintenance, the driveways aren't in, swales are not finish graded nor sodded, etc. so some of these matters are not complete and the problems have not come up yet or are not yet apparent. An example is Tuscawilla Units II, and VII and North Orlando Ranches. D) Certain lands are simply not good for development and would be better left to other purposes. Other lands are very borderline and require a lot of special improvements (such as underdrains and heavy drainage and soil correction measures) in order to just get by. The City needs to consider modifica- tion of its codes to in some way prohibit or discourage heavily the development of certain lands that have cither flood prone designations or poor soils and groundwater conditions. e E) The practice of contractors, builders, utilities, and others cutting relatively new streets to make connections to utilities for extension of new development sections, or building construc- tion along the road, or using the rights of way for new utility construction needs to be greatly tightened up through strengthened code requirements, permits, and enforcement. We recently got into that problem on Sheoah Boulevard in the Highlands. - e e ~3~ F) The code needs to be updated in the drainage area to req~ire on~site retention and treatment requirements to be compatible with other municipalities and current Department of Environ- mental Regulation requirements. There also needs to be much stronger coordination with D.E.R. as shown on the Standard Provisos of Engineering Approval as the City never really knows what D.E.R. 's approvals, conditions, etc. are on drainage, dredge and fill, etc., and they are inter-related with the City requirements and approvals. Many times they are in opposition, especially as D.E.R. wants drainage to be held on site and not run off in a positive way, and the City wants it run away from the people. An example is North Orlando Ranches 9 and 10 and some of the Terraces. G) The City needs to address the truck traffic problem which is related to some of the matters herein. I wrote to you earlier on this subject at your request. 3) Some of these types of problems will never be eliminated and certain of them will be something that cities and citizens just live with and do not correct. The current problems are serious butthe City should understand that they are also prevalent in most other fast-growing municipalities during wet weather, so your situation is not completely unique. 4) Lastly, we believe Clark, Dietz and other City staff should be present at more of the City staff, Planning Board, and City Council meetings to better communicate thoughts and recommenda- tions; so views are better presented. Perhaps the City groups would get a more balanced and complete presentation of the facts and our recommendations and we would also gain. In this way, we all might get a better understanding of the matters including what our various areas of responsibility are to include. I I . e e e r ~ J - ( STANDARD PROVISOS OF ENGINEERING APPROVAL WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA March, 1974 ?( 1) Approval is subject to review and approval by the State of Florida, Department of Pollution Control and Division of Health and Rehabilitative Services for sanitary sewage facilities, storm water facilities and potable water systems. Copies of DPC and Division of Health and Rehabilitative Service permits are to be furnished to the City. 2) Approval is subject to review and approval by the Florida Department of Transportation for driveway, utility permits in State road right of ways, or similar use and ~oad cross- ing permits from Seminole County as applicable. 3) Approval of the private water and sewer utility company of plans and specifications is required, and a copy of their plan approval and the utility statement as to its ability to provide service and completion of contractual arrangements for provision of the service is to be supplied to the City. 4) Performance Bond or other suitable security is required by the City prior to construction. 5) All work is subject to inspection by the City Inspector, City Engineer, or other authorized City representatives. Reasonable notice is to be provided by developers or contractors in requesting inspections. 6) Any unsatisfactory soil and ground water conditions determined existing under street and other facilities are to be remedied in a manner satisfactory with the City. In addition, during construction where the City determines that underdrains are necessary for satisfactory temporary and/or permanent drainage of the road base, these underdrains are to be installed to City requirements. 7) All drainageways, right of ways, and private or public ease- ments shall be satisfactorily grassed. In addition, any sonding around drainage structures or facilities or erosion protective construction such as slope paving, rip rap, etc., and other minor construction not specifically shown on the plans but determined as needed by the City during construction is to be 3ccomplished by the developer at no cost to the City. '*" DE~. e e . .. . ( STANDARD PROVISOS OF ENGINEERING APPROVAL WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MARCH, 1974 PAGE 2 8) Where high ground water conditions are found in the field, special construction measures subject to City approval will be required to protect any limerock road base course proposed, or soil cement base or other substitute acceptable to the City for this use will be required; all subject to City review and approval. 9) Dedicated Permanent Easements are required for all public drainage, water and sewer, and utility facilities to be located outside of de~icated public road or other public right of ways. 10) A soils laboratory, subject to approval by the City will be employed by the developer to supervise, perform certain tests, and provide design mixes and laboratory and field. control of road sub base, base course, and asphalt surface course construc- tion. The following will be required with copies furnished to the City: Stabilized Sub base thickness, density, and Florida bearing value Limerock Base Course thickness, density Asphalt Surface Course: thickness, compaction, plant certificate of mix conformance to specifications Soil Cement Base field sampling, design mix, and field control 11) Final certification by the Design Engineer of conformance of the completed construction to the City approved p19ns and documents is required before presentation of Maintenance Bond and acceptance by the City of the facilities. 12) Maintenance Bond is required following completion of construc- tion and prior to City accepting streets and drainage systems for bonded period.