WEST KELOWNA, BC – A West Kelowna neighbourhood has been complaining about new drainage ditches for the last 18 months, but persistent protest has prompted the District to consider changes.
Casa Loma homes were flooded during a heavy rain storm in August 2011. The water ran down the steep hill that rises above the neighbourhood that’s situated next to Okanagan Lake. Many residents believe the flooding was due to new home construction in a previously undeveloped area, even though drainage mediation was completed in the new residential development.
The District of Lake Country embarked on a three phase plan in 2012 to upgrade drainage in the Campbell Road area of Casa Loma, including dredging unpaved roadsides to build ditches that are 1.5 metres deep in some areas.
The rock lined ditches gave residents a sinking feeling there were mistakes made.
Turns out, they were right.
“Maybe it was too much of a straight engineering solution without having considered the aesthetics and the property impacts to the degree it should have been,” says Rob Mueller, West Kelowna Engineering and Operations Director.
Mueller says council will receive a petition signed by 25 Casa Loma residents on November 12th.
“They are asking us basically to price out different underground solutions,” says Mueller. “We’ll have to see what direction council gives us on that.”
Mueller says he’s proposing a fill-in solution to create more of a “swale” rather than the deep ditches currently lining some Casa Loma streets.
While phase 1 of the Casa Loma drainage project cost $650,000, phase 2, currently underway, is proposed to cost $896,000.
Phase 3 of the project has been put on hold while a nearby development is considered. Benedick Road drainage plans, yet to be designed, are said to be impacted by the new project.
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