More Water to Come?

Clearly the house below is scheduled for demolition. Those of us downwind on Oak Avenue asked the Village-person-in-charge-of-building-permits whether the grade would be raised. In their email reply, the Village answered several questions we didn't ask, and ignored the one about raising the grade.

Another Oak Avenue resident met with the Village in person and then phoned the Village representative again to make sure that all water from the new roof, any basement sumps, private storm sewers, etc., etc. would be hooked up with the Maple Avenue storm sewers. 

For some reason, the Village mistakenly thought he was mainly concerned with how many bedrooms the new house will have. The Village didn't seem to understand that while size, i.e., footprint matters, it doesn't matter as much as raising the grade. It would seem to be more important to insure that all runoff water has been directed away from the backyards on Oak Avenue toward the storm sewers on Maple. 

Unfortunately, it turns out there's a downspout in the back of the new house [according to what the Village told a resident] which will be pumping water into the backyard. The Village didn't seem to think that would be an issue because it's the only one. ONLY ONE? Have you ever seen how much water comes out of a downspout when it rains? 

Seriously. 

To refresh your memory, here's a Google map that shows the location of the teardown house that will be replaced by a new home -- top row, far left. 

Of the twelve houses shown here on 1/2 of the block, three are teardowns replaced with bigger homes. With a fourth to come. We know for sure that two of the new houses raised the grade. With disastrous results. Three other houses have additions and larger footprints. Five houses are original. And yet, the infrastructure has stayed the same.