The North Royalton City Council has been discussing amending the City’s regulations regarding the placement and use of retention and detention basins in new subdivisions. They introduced legislation at the December 7 City Council meeting.
Ward 6 Councilman Mike Wos brought about the matter for initial discussion. He noted that many of the existing developments have the basins, which, in some cases, sit on private lots, but are technically the responsibility of the homeowners association (HOA) of the development. “When something needs to be done to the basin, there is sometimes a debate over who is responsible (as you can imagine, HOA changes hands frequently so the HOA members may not know something that was established as rule 20+ years ago).” He has seen situations where a resident was having erosion issues on their property due to a failing basin, but it was the HOA’s responsibility.
“Since basins can currently be placed on private lots that can be sold and have homes constructed on them, we’ve seen where developers are able to use this to squeeze a small sub-development into areas where it troubles surrounding neighbors, especially when there may be existing water issues,” said Wos. “This should reduce the likelihood of that as it would cause them to use a larger footprint and also you would have more open land and land being used to absorb water.”
Wos said that other cities require the subdevelopments to build the detention and retention basins on common property. That way, there is no question as to who is responsible. “I felt this was an important change we needed to make to our ordinances to protect our residents,” said Wos.
Wos also points out that “there is no current requirement to aerate a retention basin. There are some developments in North Royalton that have this, but many do not. Residents near there basins have complained about stagnant water, mosquitos, etc. Much of this can be eliminated by aerating the water via mechanical action.” The legislation also includes the additional verbiage in the amendment: “All Wet Extended Detention Basins must include aeration to prevent stagnation. The aeration method and required power supply must be operated and maintained by the HOA ( homeowner’s association) and replaced as necessary or as determined by the City Engineer.”
The ordinance was introduced by Wos and members of the Council Building and Building Codes Committee, Linda Barath, Jessica Fenos, Joanne Krejci. The ordinance amends the City’s Codified Ordinances Part 12 Planning and Zoning Code,, Section 1248.01 Subdivision Improvements Required Before Final Approval and Section 1248.02 Required Submission and Approval of Plans and Specifications. The legislation would include added provision to ensure that newly created subdivisions will be able to maintain all storm water to ensure they function as intended. The measure was placed on second reading and referred to the Building and Building Codes Committee for further discussion.

By GLORIA PLEVA KACIK
Contributing Writer