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ERRORS MAY BE MADE IN ENGINEERED STORMWATER MANAGEMENT PLANS

In recent years, in several issues involving zoning in waterfront properties in Sawyer County – the Wilderness Lakes Proposal and discussions involving impervious surface limits, for example – the Northland Area Builders Association (NABA) has consistently recommended that engineered stormwater management plans be used instead of zoning restrictions.  An assumption that is part of this recommendation is that such plans would be accurate and correct because they are prepared by professional engineers.

A case involving a proposed development on Four Seasons Road on Nelson Lake brings that assumption into question.  The developers were required to obtain an engineered stormwater management plan because the residents near the development raised questions concerning the handling of the stormwater runoff from the property. The zoning committee required that the plan include infiltration to prevent flooding of neighboring properties.  A plan was developed and presented to the Wisconsin DNR; the plan, developed by an engineer, was “accepted” by the DNR.

The neighbors, in appealing the zoning decision to accept the plan, hired an attorney and a professional water engineer to evaluate the plan. The plan was found to contain errors.  When these were pointed out to the engineer, the plan was revised.  That revision was also evaluated by the professional water engineer and it also contained errors which could potentially have serious and significant consequences.  

The errors in both the first and second plans would not have been found without the efforts of the professional water engineer who evaluated them. The residents on Four Seasons Rd. had to spend quite a lot of money to appeal this decision in circuit court, hiring both the engineer and the attorney.  It was only after all this time, effort, and money was expended that the errors were revealed and the project rejected by the Sawyer County Zoning Committee.

I do not mean to insult professional engineers.  Most professional engineers would not make serious and significant errors in their work.  But such errors are made and they can only be found by careful examination of the plans by highly qualified and experienced engineers.

This story reveals the danger involved in substituting engineered stormwater management plans for zoning restrictions.  The Sawyer County Zoning Department does not have a professional water engineer on its staff. If all projects involving waterfront property were to require the engineered stormwater management plans there is no way to tell how many serious and significant errors might be made and not caught.  Most citizens in Sawyer County are not going to spend thousands of dollars to pay professional engineers to evaluate the plans for developments in their neighborhood.  

Some proposals will still require engineered stormwater management plans and the Sawyer County Zoning Department might have to pay a water engineer to evaluate these plans.  But zoning restrictions and the requirement of a public hearing for special use permits are better solutions than requiring engineered stormwater management plans for all projects.   

The Star Home Project

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