City needs permanent plan to fight drainage issues

June 13, 2007 12:18 am

— We’re glad to see the drainage issues that have held up a couple of housing developments in northwest Enid have been resolved.
Now, the Willow West 4th Addition and Belle Crossing developments can proceed. They received approval from the Enid City Commission last week after being held up for months by residents of the Clairemont Lane area, who complained of drainage problems caused by previous developments.
We certainly can understand the frustration suffered by everyone involved. Holding up work has been tough on the developers, who obviously would like to make some money. Residents in the area, too, have suffered, in some cases from water pooling on their property after heavy rains.
The situation certainly wasn’t what anyone had bargained for.
The big question now is, what happens next time?
There are going to be other housing developments in Enid. We certainly hope that is the case.
City commissioners last week discussed establishing a capital recovery ordinance, which would create a fund developers would pay into and would be used to alleviate drainage problems.
That should be one part of a comprehensive study of the situation we’d like to see investigate the situation. A study group of city staff members and other interested parties could look at the situation. Let’s look at how the city has handled things in the past. Is how we are handling developments working? If not, what should be happening here to make sure situations like this don’t develop again?
Holding up developments hurts everyone. It’s just not what we like to see.
We need a permanent plan in place to make sure things like this don’t happen again.