Pelham Town Council unanimously voted to have staff report back within a month on flood mitigation options in the Webber/Farr Roads area at its April 19 meeting.
The near-four-hour meeting was dominated by the issue, which has seen the low-lying areas in the southwest corner of Pelham increasingly prone to flooding in recent years. The problem has continued to get worse as new homes come online on the triangular tract of land between Webber, Farr, and Victoria Avenue adjacent to the Welland River.
Several residents and landowners in the area have voiced concerns, including farmer John Sonneveld, who spoke at the meeting.
Sonneveld said the Town is in a position of liability because of the issue, although some councillors and staff have not always been in agreement on that.
As he did when the matter first came to council last year, CAO David Cribbs reminded members that the newer homes in the area were never part of a Town-authorized planned subdivision, and were instead built as individual rural properties. Therefore, the area lacks urbanized infrastructure such as a municipal drain.
“There was no municipal plan on the topography of the land,” Cribbs said, but conceded that a long-term solution may have to be the installation of a municipal drain.
“It’s a difficult conversation,” the CAO added. “It’s going to take some work and some money.”
While Sonneveld acknowledged the time-honoured scientific reality that, “When development happens people with the highest dirt usually win,” the farmer said he has suffered crop losses due to flooding aggravated by newer construction.
Consultancy group Ahydtech Geomorphic Ltd. provided a detailed presentation on the matter, including three potential mitigation alternatives. The current drainage is inadequate, and all options include increasing the hydraulic capabilities of the existing culverts, including one recommendation that a culvert be sized for a “50-year flood event.”
However, the staff report due back next month is only set to investigate the possibility of dredging existing ditches as part of the 2023 budget.
At one point, Mayor Marvin Junkin took issue with the idea Cribbs wouldn’t view the problem as a Town of Pelham matter.
“Respectfully, I do take umbrage with the fact that you point out that this is [not] a local problem,” the Mayor said to the CAO.
Cribbs clarified, however, that the proposal in front of council still essentially amounted to a “band-aid solution.”
Any decisions by the Town will still be subject to Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority approval.
