Don't blame it on the Rain

This week in MY FRIDAY COLUMN I take a look at New Albany's never ending problem of continued desire to develop land formerly used for absorbing rain water without spending money to find a place for this water to go.

DON'T BLAME IT ON THE RAIN

Last Tuesday after ten blissful days of marriage I awoke early to put my new bride on an airplane for her to travel to Sacramento, California for a business trip that would keep her in the Pacific time zone for the next  18 days.  Never wanting to press her luck “Amy” enjoys getting to the airport several hours before the plane is to board, sometimes even before the airport even opens.  Most of the time this drives me bananas but this time it really didn’t.

It wasn’t because I was looking forward to her being gone for the second through forth weeks of our marriage, it was because I was excited to avoid the traffic associated with people returning to work after a long holiday weekend.  The other thing that worried me was the impending storm that was bearing down on our region.  Most people were actually looking forward to the rain after the sweltering heat of the Memorial Day weekend, but Louisville commuters have a problem dealing with rain on the roadways.

I was able to get home and return to my slumber before traffic got too bad and before the rain began to fall.  I was dozing  away on the couch when suddenly I was awakened by the sound of thunder.   As I rolled over to inspect what was happening outside I realized we were in the midst of a torrential downpour.  Most of the time I do not like it when it rains but after the lack of April showers my May flowers were really desperate for a nice watering.

VIEW FROM MY DRIVEWAY DURING RAIN
EVENT MARCH 2, 2012

We moved into our neighborhood in the summer of 2009 right around the time of the wettest few  months on record so I know what to expect when the rain starts to fall.  At the end of my next door neighbors driveway, and just across the street from that are two storm drains that should move water away from our street but do not work efficiently and also sometimes need cleaning. 

Many times during a major downpour you will see one of my neighbors or me, walking through knee deep water to insure that the grate is clear so water can flow as smoothly as possible.  Even with a drain that is cleared of debris when we have a major rainfall event, there is still flooding that occurs on our street.  The good news is it does go down quickly when the heavy raining stops.

New Albany has been historically bad about planning and zoning which goes hand in hand with their ability to move storm water efficiently away from neighborhoods.  City government allows new developments to come in and blacktop over areas that use to absorb rain as it fell but now is covered with impervious surfaces so we would have more place to drive, park and shop.  This was all done with little to no forethought about where rainwater would go when heavy rains would fall.

At this week’s New Albany city council meeting 6th district council member Scott Blair brought up the subject of neighborhood flooding in his district.  It was also pointed out that there were a couple of more problems around town including pooling of water around the intersection of Interstate 265 at State Street.  I grew up in this part of town and have witnessed the drainage getting progressively worse as the area was continuously developed.

Over the last few years I have been critical of developments in that area including several new doctors offices and the old Wesley Chapel Church sight which is currently under development.  Flooding in that area continues to be a problem but developments continue to get approved.

Each time a new development is planned some hippy types are always there to  complain about the possible storm water runoff. The protesters are always told that the developer will do what is necessary to control the overflow.  Retention basins or other forms of engineering marvels are used to assure the careful evacuation of all of the overflow water.  Years later neighbors downstream complain to council people that there is a problem but no one wants to address what caused it, just how much money it is going to cost to fix it.

If the leaders in this community wanted to get serious about flooding in neighborhoods around New Albany they would take a tougher look at planned developments.  I understand the need for progress and the important adding things like a new Doctor’s office and a Starbucks to the tax rolls but what is the cost to property that is already here.  Unless we take these things into consideration the problems that we have endured for all these years will only continue.