Run-off-water problems at the proposed location for the Sage housing development

July 22, 2008 by Walter Schneider.

Letter to Dave Dubauskas, Chief Administration Officer of the Town of Bruderheim

2008 07 22

Hello Dave,

The proposed location for the Sage housing development, the 135 acres north of the Walker School, sure is a wet place, a flood plain and bad place for the construction of a residential subdivision intended to house 1,300 people.  Topographically, the proposed area is at the lowest elevation in Bruderheim.  It is a swampy flood plain that has become seriously inundated with run-off water on at least three separate occasions during the 35-year interval that I lived in this area.  The watershed area draining into that flood plain is at least 30 square miles in size.

Quoted from the article at the following link The Proposed Sage Housing Development in Bruderheim (Published 2008 07 20):

It can only be hoped that our town council does not become blinded by short-term gain to ignore long-term pain.  Doug Maschmeyer knows how to prevent from becoming ensnared by the Sage development.  In leaving the information session, he said: “You won’t sell me a piece of property in that development!”

Let’s assume that the development will go through and that one of those floods that happen on average every dozen years or so in that area comes about.  It will be an easy job even for a junior lawyer to sue the pants of the Town of Bruderheim.  There is no way that such a flood could be called an act of God.  All of the massive damages that would be caused by such a flood would be due to neglecting to use proper care and attention….

…it would be far more practical and a lot cheaper for contractors, home owners and opportunistic developers alike to build homes on land that doesn’t flood as often as does the area for the proposed Sage subdivision.  Last but not least, that would also be far safer, financially, in regard to the risk the Town of Bruderheim would expose itself to if it were to issue permits for the construction of a residential subdivision on a flood plain that is quite literally the low point of the topography of Bruderheim.

Dave, please be so good and forward this message to Jack Lambert.  It appears that the e-mail address I have for him no longer functions.

All the best,

–Walter Schneider

P.S.: By the way, check http://bruderheim.ca/FAQ.htm. Some of the information contained in that web page is inaccurate (e. g.: the composition of the Town Council is wrong). –WHS

Cc: Various members of the public, media and town council

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