Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 28, 1995 TAG: 9509280012
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Residents of a low-lying southwest Roanoke community who've been plagued by high water came before council yet again Monday, asking for tougher storm-water control standards.
But City Manager Bob Herbert said after the meeting that there's no "quick fix" in sight. Any eventual relief will come only after a regional storm-water planning effort is concluded, Herbert said.
At issue was Cravens Creek Lane, an 11-home subdivision planned on about four acres fronting Cravens Creek Road in the Deyerle area.
People who live along Cravens Creek Road contend the subdivision will increase storm-water runoff to Cravens Creek, a small ditch that can turn from a trickling stream in dry weather to a near river as it overflows its banks during rain.
The creek is at the bottom of a huge basin that extends past Virginia 419 into Roanoke County. Development in the city and county in the last 20 years has sent increasingly large volumes of water into the neighborhood during storms.
The pleas by residents marked the second time this month they asked council to toughen storm-water standards on the subdivision of $200,000-plus homes by Clark Crawley. As designed, it meets all city and state standards. Crawley is almost ready to begin building.
On Monday, residents argued that infiltration ditches planned to help stem runoff from the new homes will be inadequate. The ditches are 3-by-40-foot trenches filled with large rocks and covered over with dirt.
Because the property is on a hillside and much of the dirt on it is nonabsorbent clay, the ditches won't work, residents said.
"We're here because we feel Cravens Creek's time is running out," Lisa Farthing told council. "Every engineer we've spoken to questions the use of infiltration ditches in this area."
Another concern is a nearby earthen dam at Spring Valley Lake, upstream from Cravens Creek, said Jo Wilson.
Although the dam is stable, a state inspector in July told residents they may have to spend thousands of dollars to strengthen it because a downstream "hazard area" around Cravens Creek is growing as the flood plain expands through development in the area, she said.
Mayor David Bowers told the dozen residents that the Fifth Planning District Commission is studying the problem as part of a regional storm-water planning study.
"This particular developer is in full compliance with [city and] state laws on this property," Bowers said.
If nothing else, Farthing said she wants tougher storm-water controls on future subdivisions in the city.
City Councilmembers Linda Wyatt and Mac McCadden said they hope the city can take some storm-water action soon.
But Herbert said unilateral measures by the city are unlikely to do any good.
"If development continues [in the county] across Virginia 419 ... then we're not going to be able to make any significant impact on the amount of flooding that takes place," he said.
by CNB