The Chapin Road drainage drama has ended abruptly–and rather anticlimactically–as a proposal to extend drainage for a planned construction on Homer Street is no more, putting an end to a months-long scuffle between property owner Betsy Harper and several Chapin Road neighbors.

The Public Facilities Committee had voted to recommend denial on the drainage project earlier this month.

“After that meeting, Betsy Harper wrote to the Council asking to withdraw her petition without prejudice, and so I would like to move that we substitute this withdrawal without prejudice for the denial,” Councilor Susan Albright said at Monday night’s City Council meeting.

Having it withdrawn “without prejudice” means Harper can file the petition again at some point.

Harper had requested a 482-foot drain extension on Chapin Road near her Homer Street lots to handle stormwater runoff from two planned single-family homes, but several neighbors on Chapin Road objected, citing concerns about flooding that could come to Chapin Road if the Homer Street lots are developed.

Harper has owned the Homer Street lots for two years and has been planning to build two houses on the land and then sell those houses. But that area has a high water table, meaning groundwater is close to the surface of the land, so in order for the property to be developed, stormwater runoff must be managed.

Harper offered to pay for the drain extension, which would have run from the manhole near 1617 Chapin Road to the end of Chapin Road, connecting to a new filtration system that was to come with the proposed Homer Street houses.

But earlier this month, the Public Facilities Committee voted to deny Harper’s petition, not because of the drainage idea but because of uncertainty of standards surrounding those two houses Harper planned to build, Councilor Susan Albright said Monday.

“At this meeting, we had a report from Weston & Samson, who did a third party review at the committee’s request, and they did report that the main drain extension met standards,” Albright explained. “But with the lots themselves, there weren’t actual construction designs for the lots, for the houses on the lots. Some of the standards were met, and others were not met and we could not be told whether they’d be met until actual designs were developed.”

In a nutshell: There was no way to tell if the planned houses would meet stormwater runoff standards, even though the drainage plan does, so the committee recommended the full City Council deny the drainage extension. So Harper pulled her request, at least for now.

Newton’s high water table is a citywide issue, and several city councilors—including a couple on the Public Facilities Committee–have expressed worry and frustration that many homes in Newton have reported flooding after lots are developed near them.

The Chapin Road situation highlights an ongoing struggle between Newtonians concerned about the impact of land development in the city and property owners who want to develop their properties and add stock to the area’s low housing inventory.

That struggle, unlike Harper’s drainage request, is unlikely to go away any time soon.