City of Elyria officials rebut Chestnut Commons road flooding issues; no meeting set with developer yet

ELYRIA — City officials maintained Tuesday that the Chestnut Commons connector road does not have flooding issues. City Engineer John Schneider said there were provisions built into the design to help drainage on the private property, but the design emphasis was focused mainly on the road. DBR Commercial Realty President Dan Reaser donated 6 acres to Elyria to build a road connecting from East Broad Street to Walmart and planned to develop the property he owns around the road. Reaser said Monday that the road was built too high, causing flooding onto the property and hindering his development plans. He also pointed out that no capacity study was done to determine whether the planned routes for the water could handle it. Most of the water dumps into a nearby ditch that runs north and south across Reaser's property. It also drains a large portion of state Route 57 and Reaser said the ditch cannot handle the volume of water. Runoff on the western side of the road is trapped because of the road height, Reaser said. Schneider confirmed that the city did not do a capacity study on how much water the ditch could hold, saying it would have taken too much time and be expensive. Instead, the design team of TranSystems and KS Associates based drainage on the existing flow of water. Construction on the road started in April 2020 and finished in October, although it has remained closed since completion. The intent of the road was to alleviate Chestnut Commons traffic. Former Mayor Holly Brinda and Reaser started the plans for it, and construction began in Mayor Frank Whitfield's term. A quick timeline for construction of the road was put in the contract between the city and Reaser. But before construction, Reaser said there were months to do a study, and if the city needed more time he would have granted it. Schneider said a few small drains were installed, and pipes were put in the right of way for future drainage. Schneider said catch basins can be put in for more drainage. But first, the developer will need site plans and where the parcels will be. "We did not want to extend them out onto private property if they would just be temporary and ripped out later on," he said. "A lot of that drainage is not included in the project to actively drain the site right now." Reaser said that won't fix the issue because the water is being drained to the same places, which will still cause water to back up. Additional catch basins don't work if there's nowhere for the water to go, he said. "It's unfortunate because we're trying our best to be on the side with the city," he said. "The engineer and the mayor are making it very difficult to do that. That's not going to be a solution that's going to even come close to working, according to my experts." The city dug five retention ponds on the property. Those are there to create storage for water. Draining into a ditch doesn't always work well, Schneider said, as it can get overwhelmed and the retention ponds are aimed to alleviate overflow. "But you can't design for every kind of rain event as well," he said. "If you think you'll never have flooding on something, just wait, there will be another rainstorm coming that proves you wrong." Schneider said the ponds provide a good amount of water containment, and he doesn't believe flooding is a major issue. The city did connect two of the retention ponds to control the flow of water. The city also has been in discussions with North Ridgeville to see if Elyria can check the ditch and make sure there are no bottleneck problems, Schneider said. The ditch most of the water travels to runs into North Ridgeville. Whitfield has said that he's waiting for everyone to feel comfortable before he opens the road. Technically, the city owns the road as it has the legal right of way. But Law Director Amanda Deery has advised against opening it because it hasn't been legally dedicated. There also need to be easements to the city for traffic signals and lights — easements that will require Reaser to sign off on. Deery said the contract with Reaser calls for a spirit of cooperation with the process, including the road dedication and platting of parcels. She said the city is being sensitive to that provision. Deery compared the road as it is now to a water tower. Although it's city property, it is not open to the public, she said. After the road was built, Reaser hired Osborn Engineering — which also is in the process of being hired by the city for a different project — to take a look at the site. Director of Civil Engineering Jon-Michael Lemon said he is concerned about drainage and runoff capacity, but also the height of the road. He suggested a solution of bringing in soil to fix the grade changes. Schneider said he has been in conversation with Osborn Engineering multiple times and listened to the suggestions. But he said there are a lot of preferences on how to design a road. Schneider said he's not sure if Osborn's suggestion is the best one. Schneider couldn't say exactly why the design team chose the height it did for the road. He said he wasn't involved in that decision. There are no flooding issues on the road itself because it was built 4 feet to 5 feet higher than the land in some places. "I wouldn't say it's that far out of where it needs to be," he said. "Could it be lower in some locations? Yeah, maybe." When pipes go into the ground for drainage, Schneider said the road does need to go a little higher for protection. Reaser and his legal team have set a deadline of Friday to meet with the city to discuss solutions. Reaser said his legal team has had that deadline in place for about three weeks. If that doesn't happen, he will move to the next step of litigation. "They have an obligation to the citizens of Elyria to do it the right way," Reaser said. "They have an obligation whether they want to or don't want to do it the right way." As of Tuesday, no meeting had been officially set. Whitfield said Tuesday he was planning on having a call in the next week or so. Contact Laina Yost at (440) 329-7121 or lyost@chroniclet.com.