09/02/1999 Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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W' owners insurance premiums. Mr. Koberna questioned if the abutting neighbor was in the flood plane. Mr. Conway indicated that the Federal Gavernment in 1979 developed the Flood Plane, and 95% of the homes in North Olmsted were built prior to that plan being written. 1VIr. Conway questioned the applicant as to if his site engineer had delineated the flood plane, as he is not sure if the home would clear the flood plane or not. Mr. Konold questioned if Fema had reviewed the planes yet. Mr. Conway indicated that the map the board members were reviewing was Fema's. Mr. Koberna commented that his understanding of a flood plane was, that they were generated either by a possibility of flooding or the area acutely flooded at one time or another. Mr. Conway commented that Mr. Koberna was correct, and it is computer generated. If a home falls in the area there is a premium on the homeo-vvners insurance, and if a house is outside of it there isn't. Mr. Konold questioned if Fema had approved of the planes. Mr. Conway indicated that it was up to him to enforce the legislation locally. A property owner can build in the flood plane as long as the finished floor is above the flood line elevation. What an own can't do is be in the flood way, then Fema would have to get involved. That is the purpose of the bridge expanding the ditch. If the owner of the lot did anything to the ditch then the planes would have to go to Chicago to be approved. Mr. Konold asked what the applicant could do to eliminate the house only being 3feet from the sideyard property line. Mr. Moyse commented that basically the great room could be cut down. Mr. Koberna indicated that he would like to see 5 ft on both sideyard lines. Mr. Maloney asked for the neighbor's comments. Mrs. Hopson indicated that she is upset about the distance of the houses. Her main concem is the creek; she has spent a lot of money stabilizing the creek as well as her home, to keep it protected from the water. The creek bead is very deep as well as wide, and on a normal rain day it gets very close to the crest of the creek. There are 12inch and 10inch pipes at the front of the culvert that feeds into this creek. There is also a large swell as well as an 18inch pipe, which feeds into the creek from the back. There is also a culvert that runs behind the properties on Burns Road. As the two culverts are not large enough to handle the water the entire area between the two culverts becomes a catch basin. If the size of the creek is cut down in any way the creek will flood. She doesn't see where the applicant could build a bridge nor do any work around the creek without affecting the size of it. She would like to see the City dredge under the culvert that goes to the school because the amount of water is getting worse. Mr. Kremzar asked if there were gabions presently in place. Ms. Hopson indicated that she had the gabions put in place by her.house as the creek is within 5 feet from the corner of her home. She is frighten to think she could lose her home after putting all that time and money into keeping it safe. If the water is restricted in any way our homes will flood. Mr. Moran commented that the land by the corner of Ms. Hopson's home has eroded to the point that a car can no longer turnaround in that area. Mr. Koberna questioned if the erosion had gotten worse in the past couple of years. All the residents commented "yes". Ms. Hopson indicated that she felt the homes on Burns were getting water from the football field and the school property. She commented that if water was not coming from the other swells and pipes the creek could handle the amount of water, but the way it is now it can't. Ms. Lamier commented that she had lived in her home for 11 years. She just found out that there is an erosion problem with their plumbing, she is not sure how long it's been there or how it started but it is going to be very expensive to have it fixed. She further commented that in the 11 years she has lived in her home the swell in the back had only overflowed once and it flooded all the homes in the area. Ms. Hopson commented that when she put in the walking bridge the creek was measured and it measures 30feet wide, that is a lot of volume of water. Law Director Gareau indicated that he would like to make a comment. He indicated that the applicant was before the Board of Zoning and Appeals board to seek a variance, not for purposes of complying with the flood plane problem. The Engineering Department and the Building Department will deal with that issue. Other than that the only other alternative would be is to condemn the entire piece of properly and say from now until the end of the earth no one can build on this lot and the Board of Zoning and Appeals is not in a position to do that. Granted this is a small size lot that he has to conform, with respect to sideyard, rear yard, and front yard setbacks and if the applicant can't he has to seek a variance from this board. If this board does not believe that the size shape and topography of this land is such that it doesn't warrant giving him a variance, then they turn him down. With respect to the issues of the flood plane and the ditch and how it impacts tlie residents, those are issues that would have to be resolved by the City. He commented that he was not clear on how the applicant building a bridge over the ditch efFects everybody else. 3