| | | | | | | |  | New Business and Commission Requests - R9 D
COMMISSION MEMORANDUM |
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| | | | | | | | | TO: | Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Commission | | | FROM: | Vice-Mayor John Elizabeth Aleman | | | DATE: | January 17, 2018 | | | |
| | SUBJECT: | DISCUSSION REGARDING THE ORCHARD PARK NEIGHBORHOOD TEMPORARY PUMPS. |
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| | | | | | | | ANALYSIS
| Please include in the January 17, 2018 City Commission Agenda, a discussion item regarding the temporary pumps and flooding situation in the Orchard Park neighborhood.
Residents of the Orchard Park neighborhood first reached out to me regarding flooding in their area in October of 2016. Since that time, Orchard Park / Nautilus Neighborhood has been added onto the stormwater capacity expansion project schedule at my request, having been previously excluded because their “Neighborhood Improvements Project” had already been completed in Nautilus Neighborhood prior to stormwater expansion being in-scope of those projects. Also during this time, temporary pumps were installed in Orchard Park during peak flood risk periods to alleviate the problems reported. Because the City’s stormwater system is capable of handling most rains, with the passing of the King Tides and the end of the rainy season these pumps were removed in December 2017 along with the other temporary pumps across the city to reduce expenses.
In July 2017, I brought forward the concept of accelerating certain neighborhoods like Orchard Park and similar cases in North Beach where pockets of a wider defined neighborhood district are very low-lying and experience major flooding in hopes of finding a way to accelerate those ahead of other neighborhoods at higher elevations. There was support by elected officials and City staff present at the 2017 Joint Neighborhoods Committee / Sea Level Rise Committee Meeting.
It should be noted that the Orchard Park neighborhood suffers from a failed drainage system that was installed in 2011. The stormwater draining inlets can be as low as 1.04 NAVD and are designed to drain into a “French Drain” (an exfiltration trench). The geology and hydrology of our barrier island doomed this design from its inception as no drainage system in our City will work when the tidal elevations exceed the inlet elevations; only if a design engineer takes this into account and sets future street elevations/pumping capacity to manage the water will this system work.
Therefore, it is important that the City Commission discuss the current policy for use of the temporary pumps and the need for this (and possibly other) neighborhoods’ drainage systems to be redesigned and programmed into our City’s Stormwater Master Plan improvements. This may require bifurcation and realignment of the neighborhoods within the current stormwater improvement schedule. I include an image of the low elevation for the Orchard Park/Nautilus Area to further enable the conversation.
Temporary portable pumps are an expensive Band-Aid that should only be utilized when risk of damage to property or safety is an issue, such as during King Tides which occur over the course of two months in the spring and three months in the fall. The cost of temporary portable pumps is simply not sustainable with the City’s current stormwater fees revenue stream. Please note that in 2017 the City spent about $130,000 monthly on temporary generators and pumping stations. The scope and cost are now significant, and money used detracts from the intended stormwater infrastructure improvement for which it was allotted. Temporary pumps are simply no longer an adequate solution to operate our city and mitigate the quality of life impacts of persistent flooding city-wide. It is imperative that the Commission understand and set policy for use of temporary pumps until permanent infrastructure can be completed.
I include communications from residents that provides additional evidence of the mobility and property damage hardships faced by these neighborhoods.
For additional information, please contact my office at extension 6437.
Legislative Tracking
Vice-Mayor John Elizabeth Aleman
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| | | | | | | | Legislative Tracking
Vice-Mayor John Elizabeth Aleman |
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