The Village suggests: A quick and small improvement would be to install a private storm sewer and/or a by-pass drainage swale within the rear and side yards of your property.
An Oak Avenue resident replies: We've been there. Already done that.
In 2007 with the construction of 2411 and 2417 Maple Avenue and the resulting deluge of water, affected Oak Avenue residents installed private storm sewers, a 10' x 4' French drain, basement sumps, and, in one case, constructed a berm to handle excess water, which suddenly inundated their backyards. Window wells were raised. Gutters were redirected. FYI -- Sump pumps are useless, when both the backyard AND the street always flood. There's no place to pump the water. As for a swale -- there WAS one between the Oak Avenue and Maple Avenue properties, which has disappeared. None of it has alleviated backyard, basement or street flooding, all of which seem to escalate with each new construction. Residents on the south side of Oak Avenue paid for a swale which does help with their excess water.
Which begs the question -- why didn't the Village require private storm sewers and by-pass drainage swales in the rear and side yards of the huge new homes at 2411 and 2417 Maple Avenue? We understand there are two tiny 18-inch catch basins in the lowest part of the backyard at 2417. Where does that water drain? Into Oak Avenue backyards and basements, apparently.
The Village allowed the builders to raise the grade from two to four feet on those mega properties and increase the footprint to almost 50% in one case, with no regard for the environmental effect on the Oak Avenue backyards. The immediate result was three backyards suddenly so full of water that it rushed into window wells like Niagara Falls, knocking out furnaces, hot water heaters, washers/driers, and ruining thousands of dollars in personal property. Ground water is always high now. And now Oak Avenue sewers back up in basements regularly. This has happened repeatedly since those homes went up -- three times in 2013 alone.
Here is a google Earth view of the two huge new homes on Maple Avenue whose construction immediately changed the landscape for the homes downhill on Oak Avenue. Even worse, the house two houses left of the big one that's smack dab in the upper middle of this picture, is about to be torn down and replaced.
When we learned that the Village was about to approve the new building permit for this new house on Maple Avenue, we asked the Village not to let the builder raise the grade. The Village's reply was non committal. We've since learned that the Village approved a gutter in the rear of the new house that empties into the backyard. Not good news for the watersoaked backyards on Oak which will have to absorb that water.
The Village reminds us: The Village has a cost-sharing program to help property owners with absorbing some of the costs involved for this private infrastructure.
The Oak Avenue resident replies: We need a buried drainage pipe with catch basins at the back of each yard, running the length of the block between the properties. This would keep excess water out of Oak Avenue back yards, which is currently being pumped out to an already flooded Oak Avenue via the private storms sewers now in place.
The drainage pipe to take the backyard runoff water out to Western Avenue instead of Oak would provide some, if not total relief to the overwhelmed Oak Avenue storm sewers. Since the Village caused this problem with its ineptitude, we propose a 90-10 cost sharing program which combines ALL the grant money allotted to the Oak Avenue AND Maple Avenue homeowners to pay for 90 percent of it. And the remaining 10% should be covered by the residents at 2411 and 2417 Maple Avenue. [We can dream, can't we?]
The Village adds a caveat: Please keep in mind these types of drainage conduits would function adequately in low or steady rain events but would not provide flooding protection during storm episodes that we experienced in April or yesterday; they are simply not intended to function in this manner.
The Oak Avenue resident replies: Actually most of us didn't require these types of drainage conduits, even during short heavy rains, BEFORE the construction at 2417 and 2411 Maple Avenue. The problem is that Oak Avenue is having to absorb Maple Avenue water in much greater quantities since then, even though the Oak Avenue storm sewers are already maxed out.
The Village goes on: However, private rear yard storm sewer are to provide assistance in draining the rear yards and avoid standing water from occurring 24-36 hours after the rain subsided.
The Oak Avenue resident replies: Except for an earlier problem in the 1990's when the Village allowed the grade to be raised for the very first tear down on Oak Avenue at 2432, there has been no standing water problem on Oak Avenue.
Water always drained on its own within 24-36 hours. Even during the 100-year floods in the 80's. When the new house at 2432 went up, eight backyards on Oak Avenue would flood after every rain. And the water wouldn't drain for as long as five weeks.
The back yard at 2406 was completely destroyed by that standing water. The Village suggested a drainage pipe back then, but the residents would have to pay for it. The proposal was unanimously rejected, since the residents felt the Village had caused the problem. The Village found another solution and the problem went away -- until 2007, when the Village failed to remember Oak Avenue's history and repeated itself.
And these problems are just the ones that have occurred on the north side of Oak Avenue in the 2400 block.
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