GDS-003 - Compensatory Flood Storage Guidelines Amendment_2000i.1-_
SAINT 101 IN
Subject: Compensatory Flood Storage
Category: Guidelines
Amendment
Policy No.: GDS -003
M&C Report No.: 2000-169
Effective Date: 2000-07-04
Next Review Date: (3 years)
Area(s) this policy applies to: Growth and
Office Responsible for review of this Policy:
Community Development Services
Building and Inspection Services
Related Instruments:
Policy Sponsor:
Document Pages: This document consists of 7
pages.
Revision History:
Common Clerk's Annotation for Official eRecord
Date of Passage of Policy: July 4, 2000
1 certify that this Policy was adopted by Common Council as indicated above.
JuIV 27 2017
Common Clerk
Date
Date Created: Common Council Approval Date: Contact:
2000-06-21 2000-07-04
Deputy Commissioner and Building
Inspector
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. COUNCIL RESOLUTION.................................................................................................................1
2. COUNCIL REPORT.........................................................................................................................2
POLICY - COMPENSATORY
FLOOD STORAGE PROCEDURES
-AMENDMENT
C.C.O. July 4, 2000
That as recommended by the City Manager, the procedures respecting the sale of
compensatory storage adopted by Council be amended to allow the Building Inspector to
consider and approve or disapprove any application for the sale for compensatory
storage in amounts not exceeding 50 cubic metres, all such approvals to be at the unit
cost per cubic metre approved by Council.
REPORT TO COMMON COUNCIL
Es
OPEN SESSION
M&C2000-169
City of Saint John
June 21, 2000
Her Worship Shirley McAlary
and Members of Common Council
Your Worship and Councillors:
SUBJECT
Provision of Compensatory Storage/ Glen Falls Area
BACKGROUND
In 1998 Council embarked on an action plan intended to alleviate the severity and
incidents of flooding in Glen Falls. A component of that plan was to purchase
property and construct retention ponds, thereby creating new flood storage
capacity. The retention ponds, which will eventually accommodate in excess of
100,000 cubic metres of floodwater, will accomplish three important objectives:
• Provision of flooding relief to the residents of Glen Falls.
• Allow continued development within the flood risk area.
• Provide compensatory flood storage for residents in the Glen Falls area who
may wish to improve their property or expand their building.
This report addresses the third objective.
ANALYSIS
Subsequent to embarking on this action plan, Council adopted guidelines
respecting the sale of compensatory storage. Those guidelines are:
M & C 2000 — 169 - 2 - June 21, 2000
➢ The applicant must demonstrate to the Building Inspector that it is not
practical to provide any or all of the compensatory storage on the property
being developed.
➢ The developer (or any affiliated company) does not own other property within
or adjacent to the flood risk area upon which the necessary compensatory
flood storage could reasonably be provided.
A Compensatory storage must be provided within the same designated flood risk
area of the displaced storage.
➢ Sale of compensatory storage must be approved by Council.
➢ Costs per cubic unit to the developer will vary, dependent on the specifics of
each application.
➢ Monies received by the City in the sale of compensatory storage will be used
solely for Marsh Creek flood reduction programs.
➢ The City will at no time be in a deficit position resulting from the sale of
compensatory storage with respect to flood storage capacity.
➢ The City will not pre -sell any storage capacity in anticipation of a
development.
➢ The City is at no time obligated to sell compensatory storage to any developer.
To date, Council has consented to the sale of compensatory storage for building
projects on Westmorland Road as well as a number of small requests from
residents in the Glen Falls area. Each request to purchase compensatory storage
was brought to Council for its consideration.
For the larger developments (Westmorland Mall) this process has worked quite
well and staff do not recommend any change in the procedure and guidelines
established by Council.
However, for the smaller requests, the requirement that Council consider and
approve such requests lends itself to additional bureaucracy and can be somewhat
frustrating to homeowners as the approval period may take two or three weeks.
Given that each and every request to purchase compensatory storage is referred to
the Building Inspector for a recommendation prior to Council making a
determination, it may be reasonable to delegate to the Building Inspector the
authority to approve requests for compensatory storage for smaller projects. For
M & C 2000 — 169 - 3 - June 21, 2000
Council's information the following requests for compensatory storage have been
approved by Council:
Date Name Location Cubic Metres
April 15, 1999
First Westmorland
Dec. 21, 1999
Meridian Construction
April 12, 2000
Kent's Building Supplies
April 27, 2000
First Westmorland
April 27, 2000
First Westmorland
May 11, 1999
Wayne Burke
May 18, 1999
Margaret Cook
June 2, 2000
Eldon Whittaker
June 6, 2000
Daryl McLennan
Jun. 12, 2000
Orville Blanchard
450 Westmorland Road
450 Westmorland Road
450 Westmorland Road
450 Westmorland Road
450 Westmorland Road
106 Glen Road
3 Todd Street
11 Todd Street
9 Simpson Drive
51 Golden Grove Road
33,500
7,880
6,520
5,400
1,600
50
25
20
40
10 (Not submitted to
Council)
Given that one of the primary objectives in establishing the retention ponds was to
allow residents of Glen Falls to make improvements to their properties, it is
recommended that the Building Inspector be authorized to permit the sale of
compensatory storage for a volume up to 50 cubic metres per individual property.
The principle that "the City will at no time be in a deficit position resulting from
the sale of compensatory storage with respect to flood storage capacity" will be
respected. It is anticipated that upon completion of Phase H of the retention pond
construction this year, the City will have provided a surplus of compensatory
storage in the order of approximately 50,000 cubic metres.
It is proposed that any request for compensatory storage in excess of 50 cubic
metres would require the approval of Council.
Should Council resolve to delegate this authority to the Building Inspector it
should be noted that approvals for requests will not be automatic. Each request
would be examined in consideration of its merits and in keeping with the
principles of the Building By-law, the Flood Risk Area By-law and the Zoning
By-law. Each request to purchase compensatory storage that is approved by the
Building Inspector would be sold at a pre -approved amount as determined by
Council. Currently that amount is $5.41 per cubic metre. It is anticipated that
subsequent to the construction of Phase II of the Golden Grove retention ponds,
an adjusted unit cost would be presented to Council for approval.
Any person who makes application to purchase compensatory storage and is
denied such approval by the Building Inspector would still have the option of
making application directly to Council.
M & C 2000 — 169 - 4 - June 21, 2000
RECOMMENDATION
Your City Manager recommends that the procedures respecting the sale of
compensatory storage adopted by Council be amended to allow the Building
Inspector to consider and approve or disapprove any application for the sale for
compensatory storage in amounts not exceeding 50 cubic metres. All such
approvals would be, at the unit cost per cubic metre, approved by Council.
Respectfully submitted,
I';�W
V
Wm. Edwards, P. Eng.
Manager. Building & Technical Services
P. Eng.
& DevelWinent Services
Terrence Totten, CA
City Manager
WE/ljv