Common Council

Budget Amendment for 2019 Citywide Flood Mitigation

Hello neighbors,

This is a long update, but please read as it contains a lot of information regarding the Stormwater Management Amendment I am proposing.

As you all know, the floods of August 20 affected many of our neighbors in District 11. Since then, I've been working with City Engineering to figure out where our weaknesses are, and how we can fix them for the future. With climate change, we know that the potential for larger storms loom large, and we need to prepare our infrastructure to handle larger storm events.

It is in that vein that I am sponsoring, along with Alders Furman, Carter, McKinney, and Phair, a budget amendment for the 2019 Capital Budget to help start the long process of implementing flood mitigation.

This amendment addresses some of the infrastructure deficiencies that have been brought to light in the flooding in June and August of this year.  This certainly doesn't address all the deficiencies but does start necessary planning and funds some important projects.

The impact of this amendment will potentially be an 8% increase on your stormwater utility bill.

If you were affected by the flas flooding this summer, and are able to attend either budget meeting on Tuesday, November 13 or Wednesday, November 14 to speak out in favor this amendment, it would be incredibly helpful. The Council will be meeting to deliberate on the budget on Tuesday, November 13, at 5:30 in room 201 of the City County Building. Should deliberations last longer than one night, we will meet again on Wednesday, at 5:30 in room 354 of the City County Building.

More details on what this amendment will help fund, according to our Engineering Department:

Watershed and Flood Studies and Planning

Because the issues in our watersheds are systemic, we plan on doing watershed and flood studies that will encompass much of the near west and far west sides. This will help us to better identify the deficiencies to get a more holistic view of what will be needed to fix the issues we have identified.  The studies will be used to further help Engineering prioritize and budget for them appropriately in the future.  All the watersheds that are identified had significant public and private damages reported. In order to get these studies done in a timely manager, Engineering will engage outside resources to help. This help will cost $775,000 for the following watershed /flood studies to be completed by consultants:

Strickers Pond/Tiedeman's Pond watershed -this is on the far west side that impacts the Wexford neighborhood. The watershed overlaps in Middleton but also impacts the portions of Stonefield and Spring Harbor.
Mendota-Spring Harbor watershed – this watershed is large and includes Odana Rd and the West Town detention area, passes through the area near Regent and Kenosha and eventually flows through Crestwood and discharges to Spring Harbor
Odana Pond/Nakoma – this watershed includes the areas near Odana golf course, Nakoma and eventually drains to the Arboretum
Additional funding will be used to help in data gathering such as flow monitoring, rain gage monitoring and complete other related studies

As an FYI, Engineer is also planning on doing the following watershed and flood studies with in-house resources:

University Ave and the Sunset Village neighborhoods
E Mendota - Pheasant Branch – this is the area that includes the Tamarack neighborhood, Sauk Creek, Walnut Grove, Wexford, Sauk Trails Business Park and Blackhawk
E Lower Badger Mill Creek – this is the area that includes the greenway that flows from Country Grove Park through Meadowood and includes the areas near Pilgrim Park and Frisch Rd

Land Acquisitions

Prior to the flooding, the City was already working on some flood studies and had identified areas that needed further analysis.  As the flooding occurred this summer the modeling for some of the areas was accelerated to help us identify issues to work on solutions that could be implemented faster than initially planned.  Acquiring the lands will allow us to construct stormwater management to better manage flooding.  $1,170,000 is being requested for funding for the following land purchases:

Hawks Landing Pond – this is the lands in the Town of Middleton directly north of Hawks Landing.  Preliminary pond design has started and construction could begin in 2019
Voss/Dregger land acquisition and acquisition of the lands owned by EDD -  this is for the Lower Badger Mill Creek Pond expansion – these lands had been identified in the 2003 Lower Badger Mill Creek Watershed plan and further identified in the Lower Badger Mill Creek Impact Fee district. Stormwater management and ponds will be constructed at this location which is generally north of Mid Town Rd and east of Meadow Rd.
Bram Street acquisition – the City has been working with the property owners at 201 and 221 Bram street to acquire their properties for expansion of the stormwater management.  The properties have historically flooded because they are built in very low lying lands and the issues cannot be solved with a public solution

Public Works Projects

These are projects that are a direct result of the August flood or projects that have been identified as priorities. Other public works contracts related to the flooding will also proceed however we have already identified funding to help cover those costs.  $5,025,000 is being requested for funding for the following public works projects:

Spring Harbor Retaining wall – this is a project that was a direct result of the August flooding. The wall undermined during the flood and failed.  Temporary and permanent repairs are needed. We will be requesting reimbursement through FEMA.
Fitchburg/Dane County/Madison MOU – this is a project that was a direct result of the August flooding.  The flooding undermined uplifted a storm culvert. We will be requesting reimbursement through FEMA
McKenna / Park Edge Park Ridge Flood Mitigation – this project was already in the design phase when the extreme flooding brought more issues to light.  A more robust design will be completed to help alleviate flooding further upstream.
Hawks Landing Farm Pond – this is a pond to be constructed north of Hawks Landing to help the flooding to the south

Budget transfers

Engineering is proposing $1,200,000 of funding from the Starkweather Coagulant Project  be transferred to help offset the Budget request. The Starkweather project has been delayed due to issues related to the environmental investigations and land acquisition. Funding for the construction of the project can be delayed for 2019 so that the project construction can start in until early 2020.  The funds will need to be reallocated in the future for the construction of the project.

**It should be noted that Engineering is actively work with FEMA on reimbursement for the flooding impacts. We will also be actively seeking other grant opportunities as they come up through various agencies such as FEMA, Dane County and the WDNR to help offset the costs for the planning, acquisitions and public works projects identified above.