Ocean View studies stormwater lot by lot

By Sam Harvey
Staff Reporter

Obviously, stormwater management is a complicated affair, and Ocean View Town Council spent the main part of a Nov. 15 workshop trying to come up with some way to address flooding and keep the peace. Alan Kercher (Kercher Engineering Inc.), who is working with the town on a proposed single-lot development ordinance, reminded everyone that an ounce of prevention was worth a pound of cure.

“It’s easy to fix in design, but once you’ve built something, you’re stuck with it,” Kercher said. He noted certain areas around town where homes had somehow been constructed dead center on the low points — not just a problem for them, but potentially trouble for their neighbors, down the line.

According to Kercher, property owners who want to tear down and rebuild will have to get extra creative, due to the lack of foresight.

“Virtually every house is a problem, and it doesn’t have to be,” he insisted.

The proposed ordinance would require anyone developing, basically, anything requiring footings, foundations, pilings or a slab on grade to submit substantial documentation.

Many of those documents would pertain specifically to stormwater management, including:

• No fill within 2 feet of any property line;

• A proposed grading plan, showing contour lines at every 6-inch interval (vertical);

• Spot elevations indicating high and low spots “necessary to adequately define the direction of stormwater runoff”;

• In no case shall stormwater runoff be discharged onto an adjacent property without a written legal agreement with the affected property owner and Ocean View’s approval;

• No re-direction of the pre-development watershed, unless authorized by the Town of Ocean View; and

• These plans must be drawn by a professional engineer or land surveyor.

As noted in the proposed ordinance, the Sussex County Soil Conservation District already reviews stormwater management plans whenever a project disturbs an area of 5,000 square feet or greater. This ordinance would require developers to provide Ocean View with all those documents (and supporting calculations), too.

Attorney Rob Robinson asked Kercher if requiring a more rigorous site-plan review could ever render a lot unbuildable.

“I hate to say never,” Kercher said — but he suspected developers might have to pursue some more “exotic” solutions. They might have to work out some cooperation from a few neighboring homeowners, for instance, maybe get everyone to chip in some money, and work with the town, to run pipes away from the area.

Other elements of the draft single-lot ordinance included some driveway standards, and a section requiring a tree survey. Bear Trap resident Roy Thomas questioned that last one, suggesting the town was underestimating the costs associated with such a survey.

Thomas said he liked the ordinance in the main, but he didn’t see any point in asking property owners to conduct a tree survey when there were no ordinances governing what people could or couldn’t do with their trees.

He suspected the single-lot ordinance would add $2,000 to any development project — higher than Kercher’s estimate of $750 to $1,000.

In other business, council wrangled over an ordinance related to speed limits around town but didn’t really reach much of a conclusion.

Presently, town code sets the default at 30 mph — as drafted, this new ordinance would reduce that to 20 mph. Council Member Norm Amendt said he thought that was too low, and council tossed around the possibility of 25 mph instead.

Thomas, recently elected the president of the Bear Trap Homeowners’ Association, said his community may have unwittingly raised the issue, when they posted signs lowering the speed limit to 20 mph.

As it turned out, town code didn’t allow that, he said. (Because council has never referenced any specific speed limit through Bear Trap, it’s legally the default 30 mph.) Thomas said they’d removed the signs, but he formally submitted his request that council specify those streets at 20 mph.

While they were about it, some council members suggested they might consider modernizing a related section of town code. As Robinson pointed out, the Vehicles and Traffic section dated back to 1919 — it still contained a provision for levying a $5 fine against people who insisted upon galloping around town (on horseback) in excess of 10 mph.

(Town Manager Kathy Roth said she hoped they’d leave that in, for nostalgia’s sake.)

Council Member Eric Magill returned to a proposed ordinance that would set some safety standards for antennae. He’d hoped to put something in to regulate ham radio towers, specifically, but discussions have highlighted the difficulty in distinguishing antennae from towers.

The same safety concerns could apply to both, Robinson pointed out.

Council considered yet another amendment to the sign ordinance, to now include “on-premises business directories.” Land Tech’s Alton Murray referenced the situation at 118 Atlantic Avenue, where the lane passes the surveyors’ office en route the medical offices, toward the rear.

Patients were coming into Land Tech looking for their doctors, if the receptionist couldn’t intercept them hobbling across the parking lot, Murray pointed out. A directional sign located near the office might save everyone a trip.

“I don’t think, once you get onto the property, developers are going to go sign-crazy,” Robinson said — he suspected the town’s main concern was with streetscape aesthetics. Council seemed to agree that was the case, although as Roth clarified, the town’s jurisdiction covered the entire site, not just the portion visible from the street.

Council also considered a request from developers at 96 Atlantic Avenue who are trying to comply with the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM). Ocean View is working its way toward a new central water system, but in the meantime, OSFM regulations state that every parcel must be served by water, one way or another.

The town is still working to procure all the construction easements work crews will need in place, before the project goes out to bid. Town Clerk Marie Thomas Staff said they’d be mailing that paperwork to residents in short order. She reminded everyone she’d be happy to offer her services as a notary public, free of charge, as soon as residents could bring their easements by town hall.