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Home My WebLink AboutItem 10 Orchid Pond Property AcquisitionAGENDA ITEM SUMMARY Meeting Date: 1/18/2022 Meeting Type: Regular Meeting Staff Contact/Dept.: Meghan Murphy/DPW Staff Phone No: 541.744.3385 Estimated Time: Consent Calendar SPRINGFIELD Council Goals: Maintain and Improve CITY COUNCIL Infrastructure and Facilities ITEM TITLE: ORCHID POND PROPERTY ACQUISITION ACTION Authorize the City Manager to accept title to the tax lot which contains Orchid REQUESTED: Pond, a water quality facility located at South 57' Place and Orchid Lane (Map 18- 02-03-33, Tax Lot 1600). ISSUE Hayden Homes LLC owns Orchid Pond, a water quality facility (WQF) that STATEMENT: collects and cleans stormwater runoff from the Jasper Meadows 6' and 7' Addition subdivisions, built in 2007. Hayden Homes LLC has been working with staff and wishes to donate the property to the City. ATTACHMENTS: 1. Water Quality Facilities in Subdivisions Council Briefing Memo (9/24/18) 2. Orchid Pond Property Acquisition Map & Photos DISCUSSION/ At the September 24, 2018 Council Work Session, staff discussed the many issues FINANCIAL with WQFs in subdivisions built before 2010 (Attachment 1). The Council IMPACT: supported staff's recommended approach of working with owners of WQFs built prior to 2010 on a case-by-case basis to explore transferring ownership and maintenance responsibilities to the City. Orchid Pond (Map 18-02-03-33, Tax Lot 1600) collects and cleans stormwater runoff from public streets and 87 private residential lots. The location of the pond is shown in Attachment 2. Orchid Pond was developed in 2007 and was intended to be transferred to the Jasper Meadows 3rd/4th Addition Homeowners Association (HOA); however, that transfer never occurred and the property's ownership remains under the original developer, Hayden Homes LLC (Lane County Deeds and Records). A member of Hayden Homes LLC contacted staff with a request to donate the property to the City. Hayden Homes LLC has completed the vegetation maintenance tasks required by the City. Operations staff has recently inspected the pond and found it to be in satisfactory condition. Donation of the property to the City will have minimal financial impact, other than the fees to record the deed with Lane County. Through an existing maintenance agreement and easement, the City is already responsible for removing sediment and maintaining the pipes and catch basins, while the property owner is responsible for maintaining vegetation and aesthetics. Upon acceptance of the bargain and sale deed transferring the property to the City, the City will take over management of the vegetation and aesthetics in addition to its current responsibilities. Although this will necessitate an increase in operational staff time required for maintenance of the facility, it will be partially offset by a reduction in Environmental Services staff time and will help the City better meet its stormwater regulatory requirements. MEMORANDUM City of Springfield Date: 9/24/2018 To: Gino Grimaldi COUNCIL From: Tom Boyatt, Interim DPW Director Matt Stouder, Environmental Services Manager BRIEFING Meghan Murphy, Environmental Service Tech Subject: Water Quality Facilities in Subdivisions MEMORANDUM ISSUE: Water quality facilities (WQFs) in subdivisions built prior to 2010 are typically owned and maintained by homeowners associations (HOAs), many of which have dissolved or are otherwise non-functional. In many cases, these facilities accept stormwater runoff from public streets, and lack of proper maintenance can cause the City to be out of compliance with its Municipal Separate Storm Sewer (MS4) permit issued by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). COUNCIL GOALS/ MANDATE: Promote and Enhance our Hometown Feel While Focusing on Livability and Environmental Quality BACKGROUND: WQFs collect and clean stormwater runoff from streets, roof tops, parking lots, and other impervious surfaces throughout the City. Installation of these facilities is a required element of the City's MS4 permit (issued by the DEQ) and the Springfield Development Code. In response to required conditions of the City's MS4 permit, staff implemented a program in 2010 to inspect these facilities to ensure they are functioning properly. Staff takes an educational approach to engage WQF owners in facility maintenance, and mails each facility owner fact sheets about the facility, information on invasive and native plants, and facility inspection results. For WQFs located within subdivisions, the City also offers to organize volunteer work parties with the HOA or neighborhood group to help maintain their facilities. After the WQF is inspected, corrective maintenance may be required if the facility is not functioning as it was designed. Corrective maintenance could include removal of invasive species (e.g. blackberries), removal of sediment which has accumulated over time, trimming of overgrown vegetation, or replanting vegetation that has died. Overall the program has succeeded in marinating the functionality of WQFs located in subdivisions, especially those serving a single tax lot. WQFs that serve multiple tax lots (often located in subdivisions) have been one of the more challenging aspects of the inspection program. A few photos of these types of WQFs are included with attachment 2 to this memo. These facilities collect and treat runoff from both public streets and private properties, and are usually managed by neighborhood groups or HOAs. Ownership and maintenance of WQFs in subdivisions occurs in a variety of ways. In subdivisions built prior to 2010, the maintenance obligation is usually the responsibility of the HOA or other private entity. In some instances, the City has agreements in place whereby the City will perform functional maintenance, and the private entity will provide aesthetic maintenance; however, this is the exception not the rule. A complicating factor related to Attachment 1, Page 1 of 2 maintenance is that many HOAs have dissolved or are otherwise non-functional, and by default City Operations staff has been providing base -level maintenance to ensure the facilities function, do not flood, and that the City is in compliance with its MS4 permit and ongoing clean water initiatives. Since 2010, the City's practice in subdivisions has changed to require that newly constructed facilities that accept both public and private stormwater runoff be owned and maintained by the City. This practice was adopted to ensure that stormwater runoff is treated properly and WQFs are consistently maintained. In addition, the practice relieved private residents and/or HOAs from the maintenance burden as these organizations have difficulty implementing the maintenance requirements. DISCUSSION: There are approximately 40 WQFs in subdivisions that were built between 1993 and 2010 that are privately owned by HOAs or another private entity (individual residents, the original developer, etc.). As mentioned above, the City has taken a progressively more active role in maintaining these facilities over the past five years. With the approval of Council in 2013, the City's Operations Division hires a temporary work crew each summer to manage vegetation in the facilities and ensure they are functioning properly. In 2013, Council also authorized the purchase of a small trailer (photo in Attachment 2) furnished with hand tools to be used by volunteer groups for WQF maintenance and streamside restoration. While the trailer has been well received by local volunteers performing streamside restoration, it has not been widely used by HOAs for facility maintenance despite ongoing efforts by staff. Recently, the City has been approached by a few owners of privately held WQFs in subdivisions who are interested in transferring ownership and maintenance obligations of their facilities to the City. City staff is amenable to taking on the maintenance obligations by easement and/or transfer of ownership on a case by case basis. This would allow the City to reduce the risk of being out of compliance with its MS4 permit by ensuring the WQFs are under City control, and that stormwater runoff in the WQFs is being treated properly. Ownership of the facilities would result in additional workload for Operations staff; however because the City is already performing base level maintenance requirements on the WQFs in many cases the level of additional effort is not expected to be significant. Moreover, moving to own and maintain (permanently or by easement) those facilities built prior to 2010 will help ensure equity and fairness among residential stormwater ratepayers. Transfer of property will likely only be feasible when the WQF is situated on its own tax lot. In other instances (where the WQF is on the same tax lot as the residence, or situated across multiple tax lots), acquiring and recording a public maintenance easement would likely be the best option. Staff would evaluate each facility on a case by case basis, and work with legal counsel prior to determining if maintenance responsibility by ownership or by easement would be in the City's best interest. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Provide direction to staff regarding maintenance obligations for water quality facilities in subdivisions that were constructed prior to 2010, are located on private property, and accept public stormwater runoff. Attachment 1, Page 2 of 2 ORCHID POND PROPERTY ACQUISITION SOUTH 57TH PLACE AT ORCHID LANE (MAP 18-02-03-33 LOT 1600) SITE CONTEXT MAP & PHOTOS i... wr - - I J ' C a F—*rte s s. 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