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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2.c. Lebanon Hills Regional Park t..l�\� XECUTIVE SUMMARY R.lSE1��1{�J E CITY COUNCIL City Council Work Session: July 13, 2005 AGENDA ITEM: Lebanon Hills Regional Park AGENDA SECTION: PREPARED BY: Andrew J. Brotzler, P.E., City Engineer AG .�� � � ATTACHMENTS: None APPROVED BY: RECOMMENDED ACTION: Discussion onJy. ISSUE: Consider City position for Lebanon Hills Region Paxk storm watex drainage issues. BACKGROUND: As the Council is aware,Staff has been participating in regular meetings with representatives from Dakota County, the Citp of Eagan, the City of Apple Valley and Minnesota DNR to xeview the ongoing dxai.nage issues in Lebanon Hills Regional Park and downstream in the City of Eagan at Cliff Road. Da.kota County and their consultant have prepared a draft plan to address the recuzring d.rainage issues. This plan is scheduled to be presented to the Dakota County Physical Development Committee on July 26,2005. County sta.ff has indicated that the presentarion will be focused on the technical components of the plan and the requested action will be authorization to release the draft plan for a 60-day public review peri.od. While it is the intent of County sta.ff to focus only on the technical components of the plan,the plan does include estimated project costs and based on past public comments,it is anticipated that a discussion on project funding and participation will ensue. Staff recendy met with Chaxlie LeFevexe and Pete Willenbring to review the legal aspect of the drainage issues downstream from the City of Rosemount and to discuss the legal responsibilities of the City. Both Cha.xlie and Pete will be in attendance at the meeting to present to Council info�mation on the legal responsibility of the City. In addition,a letter is being dxafted for Council considexarion to be forwasded to the Dakota.County Board prior to their receipt of the draft Storm Water Management Plan for Lebanon Hills Region Park. A copy of this draft letter will be forwaxded to Council via e-mail prior to the meeting. SUMMARY: Staff is seeking Council direction on the development af a City position with respect to the downstseam citainage issue in Lebanon Hills Regional Park. G:\ENGPROJ\Lebanon Hills\LHRPUpda[eUC7-I1-05.doc . f � r July 13,2005 R��T Chairman Harris and County Commissioners Dakota County Administration Building 1590 Highway 55 Hastings,MN 55033-2372 Re: Lebanon Hills Regional Park Drainage Report Dear Chairman Harris and County Commissioners: On July 26�',2005, a draft storm water management plan for the Lebanon Hills Regional Park(the"Park")prepared by Barr Engineering will be presented to the County Board. The draft plan has been reviewed by the City of Rosemount. It is understood that the County will be requesting Rosemount to sliare in the cost for implementing the plan,however the plan in its current form does not propose a specific formula for how proposed projects are to be funded. T'he report does however make a specific effort to point out that a substantial portion of the drainage area to the Park is within the City of Rasemount. Additionally, eonversations between City and County staff have led the City to be concerned that the County may be expecting a substantial financial contribution by Rosemount to the Park drainage improvements. The purpose of this letter is to provide early input from the City of Rosemount so that the County Board may move forward with its decision on the projects without unfair or unreasonable expectations about participation in funding of the proj ect by Rosemount taacpayers or utility rate payers. The storm water management improvements that are proposed to be constructed to address flooding problems within the park property generally include the following: 1. Provide storm water outlet for park property that previously had been determined to not be needed. This generally requires increasing the capacity of the lift station at LP-51/Holland Lake(approx $1,000,000) and constructing a berm and outlet from McDonough Lake($850,000). 2. Implement approximately 12 additional drainage improvement /impoundmentJrestoration projects within park($1,800f�,000). �—"�� In regard to defining funding responsibilities related to the above projects,a number of issues need to be considered and the Rosemount Council believes that in the interest of fairness, a11 parties involved should be mindful of certain facts during this discussion.. As a strictly legal matter,the responsibility of the City to solve these flooding problems would be very limited. The question whether the City's activities have resulted in legal responsibility for the downstream flooding would be governed by the sa-called"reasonable use doctrine." Under this doctrine, liability is determined by balancing the benefit to the � � , upstream property against the damage to the downstream properiy considering such factors as: 1)whether there is a reasonable necessity for the drainage; 2)whether regard is taken to avoid unnecessary drainage to others; 3)whether the benefit to the land drained outweighs the hann to the land receiving the water; and 4)whether the dra.inage is accomplished by improving a natural system or providing a feasible artificial one.As is more fully described later in this letter,the development of that part of the City that actually drains to the Park has been very limited and the resulting increase in storm water runoff,if any,has been insignificant. Therefore,application of the reasonable use doctrine would not result in the imposition of legal liability for the downstream flooding on the City of Rosemount. Apart from legal responsibility,common sense militates strongly against expecting a significant contribution from the City of Rosemount for a number of reasons. First,a substantial part of the"watershed"of the Park within Rosemount is,in fact either land - locked,or full of ponds and depressions that have outlets that aze severely limited in capacity. As a result, only limited areas within Rosemount contribute runaff to the park, and when they do so,it is at a very limited rate. Second, although appro�cirnately 46%of the watershed of the Pazk is within the City of Rosemount,this water has very little impact on increasing flood levels downstream within the park. This observation is based on modeling completed by the County's project consultant Barr Engineering indicating that if Rosemount's water was completely diverted from draining to the park,virtually all the proposed improvements would still be needed. Third,for the rainfalUsnowfall design event causing problems in the park,the surface water runoff volume directed to the Park from the City of Rosemount during this event has not significantly increased over pre-development conditions, and the peak rate has decreased due to the construction of 120�'street that acts as a dam at the border between the City of Rosemount and the park. Fourth,the City has adopted a storm water management plan for all areas within Rosemount. The plan requires that extraordinary storm water management measures be incoiporated into each new developing area. The irnplementation of this plan will assure that any future development of the area that drains to the Park will further decrease runoff rates and volumes in the future. The implementation of this plan will be at the expense of the City of Rosemount,its taxpayers,rate payers and developers of land within the City. In suinmary, and as the above facts illustrate,it is our position that we are not legally obligated to contribute funds to this project. The contribution of storm water to the park from areas within the City of Rosemount do not exacerbate the flooding problems experienced in the Park, and as development continues,this contribution of runoff will be further reduced. Furthermore,the County staff has indicated that elimination of storm water directed to the park from Rosernount would not reduce the need for the majority of the projects proposed in your plan. As a result,the City of Rosemount does not feel a compelling case has been made mandating our financial participation toward the implementation of the proposed Park improvements.