City manager pay and some property might be released from the Chambers Basin moratorium

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City manager pay and some property might be released from the Chambers Basin moratorium

Submitted by emmettoconnell on Fri, 12/07/2007 - 2:19pm.

This week on the Council

Almost every week this is the "What's on the city council's plate this week" review. I don't cover everything, so if you want the full rundown, read the packet and agenda yourself.

1. City manager Steve Hall might be getting a raise. All city employees got a cost of living increase this year, so Hall's COLA should be $4,126.72. His performance bonus, if the council goes with the staff report, will be $3,250. Here's the staff report (pdf file) on that.

2. The city also might release some parts of the Chambers Basin moratorium area to allow development. Apparently, though the exchanges of some technical reports between the proponents of the development, city consultants and city staff, it came to light that this development won't have an impact on the storm water issues surrounding the rest of the basin.

This is important because: remember earlier this week, when we were all looking at pictures of the west side under water? And earlier today, looking at pictures of the Chehalis over I-5? That's storm water.

Chambers Basin is a flood prone area of Olympia, and some would question whether building there is a good idea.

From the staff report (pdf file):

City staff has received revised information, including a memorandum from GeoEngineers (Attachment 4). Staff now expects that development risks related to storm and groundwater can be reasonably minimized through site grading and stormwater design.
Accordingly, continuation of the moratorium with respect to the Smith Lake property is no longer required. This conclusion is based on the above determination and the following factors:
• The area of concern within the Smith Lake property area is limited in scope and the potential for development within this area does not appear to present a substantial risk of drainage harm to other properties.
• Any development of the Smith Lake property must conform to the City’s Stormwater Manual.
• Smith Lake Associates have indicated that they intend to manage stormwater from the development at a location outside of the site that has better drainage.
• Smith Lake is located in the down stream portion of the study area relatively near the outlet to Chambers Ditch at Wiggins Road.
• Any development of the Smith Lake property will be subject to an environmental review.
In light of its precise location and the reasons outlined above, staff believes that the property that is the subject of the attached resolution can now be removed from the moratorium.
This conclusion should not be taken to mean pre-approval of any particular development proposal. Existing development regulations and SEPA will require that any formal development proposal make significant accommodations for managing storm and groundwater to minimize flooding risks and uncertainties.
Finally, the proposed revision would also release from the moratorium open space and trail properties owned by the Shana Park Association and Thurston County along the southern edge of Smith Lake.

Here are some links:

Association of Citizens Concerned about Chambers Lake Basin (next meeting is December 20)

Chamber Basin rundown page from the city.

Eric Nelson (of the ACCCLB) on growth management.

Lifting the moratorium seems

Submitted by Meta Hogan on Sun, 12/09/2007 - 11:04am.

Lifting the moratorium seems like a lame idea, even in a limited area. The ACCCLB invited candidates to take a tour of the basin before the election, so that we could get an on-the-ground sense of how the water goes out there. We talked with neighbors, viewed slides from previous winters' flooding, and toured almost the entire length of the drainage ditch. One of the awkward aspects of Chambers Lake Basin is that it sits across three (?) jurisdictions -- Olympia, Lacey and Thurston County -- so it's difficult to treat it as one entity. Each of the jurisdictions has its own definition of "impact", its own growth policies, and its own share of constituents/residents who reap benefit or share burden. The ACCCLB is pretty frustrated, from what I heard, about the inability of the interjurisdictional process to address their concerns.
I would hope, given the recent flooding, that elected officials in this region would honor the moratorium (and possibly even expand it to include a wider area) until we figure out what to do with our stormwater. I'm betting that we'll develop as much as we can regardless, then be equally confused when the next (bigger) flooding happens. Of course, it's just a few millions gallons of untreated water in the sound. It's not like anybody ran on cleaning up Puget Sound or anything. Blech.

responce from the neighborhood

Submitted by emmettoconnell on Tue, 12/11/2007 - 3:21pm.

From the ACCCLB:

December 11, 2007

Todd Stamm, Community Planning Manager
City of Olympia, Wa.

Todd

I have reviewed the staff recommendation to remove Smith Lake from the Chambers Basin moratorium, the letter from Brown and Caldwell and the rebuttal from GeoEngineers.

In light of the staff commentary regarding the developers denial of access to the property for the purpose of evaluation, the submittal of a developer funded study in lieu of the cities study and commentary by Brown and Caldwell (an independent third party engineering firm hired by the city to review and evaluate the developer funded study) noting that the developers study was incomplete and inconclusive in that it does not address significant concerns that initially precipitated the moratorium two years ago, I do not believe that removing this property from the moratorium is in the best interests of the city and definitely not in the best interests of the neighboring property owners both upstream and downstream, many or whom have lived on their properties for decades.

The fact that the developer funded the GeoEngineers study, at the very least suggests a bias on the part of the engineers to support findings most advantageous to the developer.

The report from Brown and Caldwell points out more that once that the GeoEngineers report does not adequately address either upstream or downstream impacts of the proposed “solution” for flooding as related to Smith Lake. Brown and Caldwell agreed primarily with the general description of soil types and that it was theoretically feasible to import enough fill material onto the site to elevate construction enough to keep the foundations out of the water table during the periods of high ground water, while pointing out that impacts to adjoining, downstream and upstream properties were not adequately addressed.

Building up the elevation of that site by eight feet will most definitely inhibit migration of upstream surface water, forcing it to back up until it can find an a route around. Additionally the added elevation will accelerate the shedding of surface water from the site to those properties downstream. We are discussing a 50 acre site, receiving 54 inches average annual rainfall, or somewhere in the neighborhood of 225 acre-feet of stormwater on an average year, that is going to be funneled through Shana Park and Wilderness and will most likely overflow the ditch when it reaches Spooner Berry Farm (further degrading Mr. Zhan’s ability to make a living farming the property he has owned for decades).

The comments imbedded into the Brown and Caldwell report by GeoEngineers do not seem to be substantiated and also seem to flatly contradict in many cases the observations of city staff and the direct testimony of neighboring property owners who have lived on that land anywhere from 20 to 40 plus years.

It is my understanding that as of December 4 of this year Smith Lake is full to the brim and close to overflowing it banks. I would highly recommend that city staff physically visit the sites in question to determine current conditions.

Sadly the history of development in the Chambers Basins, has been that developer funded engineering studies are manipulated and massaged until they “prove” stormwater code compliance. City and county staffs have not had the resources necessary to validate the purchased studies and by and large have accepted them at face value. The result has been the incremental increases of flooding in the basin as the open spaces are paved over and their ability to absorb stormwater is diminished or eliminated entirely. As there is less and less open spaces left the problems are becoming increasingly critical.

Many of the long term residents can independently substantiate the history of flooding in the region (including Smith Lake). Additionally I would suspect that careful examination of the records maintained by the residents over the years will indicate incremental worsening of the flooding, roughly corresponding to the incremental development of the basin.

In conclusion I believe that the release of this property from the moratorium at this time, based on a potentially biased engineering study, that an independent firm hired by the city found to be incomplete and inconclusive in regards to one of the two major concerns addressed by the moratorium, would be extremely irresponsible.

Sincerely

Gus Guethlein

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