03/14/1995 Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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around would probably be used for their underground retention system. Assistant City Engineer McDermott advised that the platting does conform to code, but none of the engineering details have been submitted as yet. The audience was asked to speak at this time. Mrs. Spaulding noted that, even though an engineering plan has not be submitted, some water problems should be considered. These homes will drain into Sharon Drive which drains into Clague Road and goes north to the pumping station at LeBern Ave. This pumping station has been targeted by the EPA as not having treated the sewage properly. According to the agreement with the EPA, the city will be penalized every time there is a by-pass (raw sewage du.mped on the ground) and in the last 2 years there have been two incidents of dumping. If that continues the city will be fined, and since the city is in dire financial striates, she does not believe it can afford to pay $500.00 for the first by-pass; $5,000.00 for the second; and $75,000.00 for the third. She noted that it was not just the neighbors, but the federal government who said they had sewer problems. She was not aware of what the Law Director would say, but she believed this is a unique situation and under those circwnstances, unique measures can be taken. IVew sewers are being put in from the Westlake line on Clague Road south to the LeBern pumping station in the hope that these improvement will alleviate the area's flood.ing problems and should be completed by'August of 1996. She does not believe that the system should be further taxed until after those improvements have made. She compared that to _the situation in the 1950's when sewers were being installed; if a developer wanted to build a subdivision beyond the point where the sewers were completed, they were required to put their own sewer system until the city sewers were installed. She suggested that the developer either improve the LeBern lift station prior to building the development, or take the sewage out to Lorain Road thus by-passing the problem area. If he abides by the city codes for storm water retention, there should not be a problem for the immediate neighbors, but because this development is at a high point and all the water ru.ns to the creek, there might be a problem further down in the Alexander Road area. Regarding the retail area, she explained that the 1.7 acres that is zoned for General Retail is going to be developed for Single Family and would abut an existing commercial building so someone's back yard will run up to commercial property. There would be single family property 240 feet from Lorain Road and the single family development would be 260 feet into oommercial property. She was concemed about this diamond shaped area encroaching into the commercial area and how it might look. If the streets were reconfigured so that the only entrance was on Lorain Road (similar to what was shown for the cluster development) then a street would abut the commercial area, not someone's back yard and Sharon and Woodview would remain dead-end. She does not lnow how that would effect the number of lots, but she stated that it would relieve pressure on the Sharon/Clague exit since there would be no increase in traffic and would provide a place to put sewer lines and a pwnp station. She suggested that the line between commercial and residential could be reconfigured so that it abutted the southern most property line of lot 51 on West 231 Street. She estimated tliat this would eliminate about 10 sublots thus some relieving the traffic on Sharon and Woodview. She, personally, preferred keeping the access onto 231 open, but many of her neighbors did not because they were concerned about drivers cutting through, so she suggested that the road could be reconfigured so that there were right turns with stop signs to make cutting through more difficult. Mr. Manving believed that for the amount of people in this area, there would hav.e to be a dual access. She cautioned that if the Sharon and Woodview Drives are connected to these streets along with access onto Lorain Road, there would be serious traffic problem since drivers would cut through to eliminate the Lorain/ Clague intersection. She stated that the neighbors were still comfortable with staying with single family homes rather than cluster homes (some of the audience voiced disagreement). She thought it was good to have two alternate plans to study and presented a chart comparing the two proposals. 5