Betsy Harper plans to build two houses on Homer Street on property she bought two years ago, and as a means of mitigating stormwater runoff, she wants to add a drain extension on nearby Chapin Road, which the city wouldn’t even have to pay for.

But the City Council’s Public Facilities Committee voted on Dec. 3 to reject the proposal, which will now head to the whole City Council for a vote.

When Harper filed her request for the drain extension, several neighbors on Chapin Road objected. The Public Facilities Committee then voted three in favor, two opposed and one abstention and asked the City Council to send it back to the committee to have a peer review done.

The Council did that, and on Dec. 3, the committee met again with city engineers to get updates.

Frank Nichols, senior environmental engineer with the Utilities Department, gathered various parties together, including engineering firm Weston & Sampson, for that review.

“They needed to confirm that it had the capacity to handle two driveways and a roadway extension at the end of Chapin Road along with sump pumps for, I believe, 17 homes, and the pipe was going to be a 12-inch-diameter concrete pipe laid at a 1.1 percent slope,” Nichols said. “And the peer review determined that it does have the capacity necessary to handle that amount of flow.”

Both Weston & Sampson and the Newton Division of Public Works concluded that Harper had complied with stormwater standards and would be required to meet more criteria with the building permits for the new homes, and that the size drain extension she proposed would be able to handle a 10-year storm event.

A 10-year storm event refers to probability, as in a 10 percent chance of a storm that big happening in any given year, and that’s a design standard used by the city for roadway drainage. A project must be able to withstand those severe 10-year storms.

And there’s an added benefit, Nichols added.

“I was out there three or four weeks ago, and I noticed that there are only two catch basins on the roadway now, and unfortunately they’re both under trees, and debris gets on top of them in the fall,” Nichols said. “This proposed drain main extension is adding two additional catch basins upstream, which will reduce the amount of possible ponding and the low point.”

What seemed an easy decision, however, was not. Nichols was supposed to gather input from not just Weston & Sampson but also the engineer the Chapin Road neighbors had hired to do their own analysis.

“So one-sided,” Councilor Andrea Kelley said. “To me, that doesn’t sound like all parties involved. That sounds like the petitioner and DPW people.”

Councilor David Kalis said he was hesitant to take the DPW’s word that stormwater mitigation for the two houses will be addressed before the building permits are issued.

“We just have so many properties throughout the city that are getting water after new projects are built,” Kalis said. “And engineering signs off on them, and it’s inexplicable. Whether it’s more rain, or it’s underground water, it’s a lot of different things to point at. And the ones holding the bag are always the neighbors.”

Nichols assured Kalis and the rest of the room that he personally reviews plans and makes sure drainage is appropriate for the topography so as not to impact abutters.

“As far as I know, we do not approve plans that would impact abutters, because that’s the first phone call we’re going to get, and it escalates,” Nichols said.

Councilor Alison Leary noted that Chapin Road has had water issues for decades and adding catch basins with the drainage extension “would solve their problems entirely.” She also reminded the room that the vote was on the drain extension, not a hypothetical future building permit.

“To me, it’s almost a gift, because the city isn’t paying for this,” Leary said. “And it would be one way to really get the ponding off the roads with the new culverts and it has plenty of capacity. So I have every confidence that that would be the best way to go. Whether projects get built or not, this will solve the problem on Chapin Road.”

But others wanted more information still, specifically about the 10-year storm measurement as it pertains to the Homer Street lots and Chapin Road.

“I’m interested in how sensitive that number is,” Councilor Randy Block said. “What if you use 20-year storm data? Does this system still work? Is it still in compliance? What’s the tipping point?”

And, is the proposed drain extension good for well above the 10-year storm standard? Or is it just making the cut?

Councilor Marc Laredo echoed that later concern.

“If this was designed to manage a hundred-year storm, for example—and I’m not saying that’s the right measure—you could assess risk a little bit more here. But someone who owns a home for 35 or 40 years might face a flooding situation three or four times during the life of that, I think that’s very problematic.”

Laredo added that he’s uncomfortable approving the drain extension knowing there are unknown factors coming with home construction planned.

Harper urged the committee to support her drain extension and said it would benefit people who live there now and people who will move there later. 

“I do hope that we understand that we are putting in, potentially, a stormwater drain that will benefit not just the current properties but future generations,” she said. “This is something that is necessary if someone is going to make a major renovation on their property or add an ADU, enhancing the value with the feasibility of their property by having an option to tap into the stormwater drain.”

And she pointed out that neighbors can tie into the new drain extension as well, and she offered to pay $5,000 toward that cost for each homeowner who opts in.

But several of the neighbors on Chapin Road say they don’t want it and have enlisted a lawyer and an engineer of their own, as Councilor Tarik Lucas (who’s not a committee member) reminded the room.

“I don’t know why this particular committee has not rejected this petition outright months ago, because we are putting them through a nightmare right now,” Lucas said, adding that he would vote against it in the full Council.

Kalis then made a motion for denial of the drain extension. So a “yes” vote was a vote against it. That motion received four votes in favor and three votes against.

Councilors Kalis, Laredo, Kelley and Rena Getz voted for denial, and councilors Leary, Susan Albright and Vicki Danberg voted against denial.