Drainage issues concern supervisors
The Marshall County Board of Supervisors continues to work on erosion caused by developers clearing lots for new subdivisions, plus problems with old subdivision roads torn up in later phases of development.
A subdivision plan off Deer Creek Road, Roper Field Subdivision, proposes 58 new lots with one entrance and exit. But regulations require two entrances in subdivisions with 45 lots or more, said zoning director Ken Jones.
The proposed subdivision is located across the street from Roper Cove Subdivision, Jones said.
He said the developer had landlocked himself by prior development.
District 3 supervisor Keith Taylor complained that roads are falling apart at Dryfield Subdivision, and he wants those fixed first.
The developers sell land and builders fill up the ditches with silt during construction, he said.
“Drainage is horrible,” he said. “We shouldn’t give final approval until drainage is fixed.” Jones said requiring sodding on all slopes would stop silting that fills ditches and pipes. There is insufficient time for seeding of grass to stop soil erosion, he said.
District 4 supervisor George Zinn III said if one developer is allowed to sidestep zoning regulations it would just open the floodgates for others who want shortcuts.
“We are just trying to tighten up on it,” Jones said. “We have a lot of places with only one way in and out.”
District 1 supervisor Charles Terry asked about standards.
“We break too many of our own rules,” Taylor said. “Forty-five lots and no more. Why have rules if we’re not going to follow them?”
“I have a problem with developers filling the ditches,” Terry said.
Taylor said the county is having to go behind developers in some subdivisions and correct problems that should not have been allowed in the first place.
“Who should it fall on, engineering or zoning?” Terry asked.
Jones said builders come in and do dirt work and do not stabilize the soil on the slopes in ditches. The slopes are washing before they are seeded.
Zinn, using the drainage at Moore Plantation as an example, said eventually the homeowner is responsible.
Jones said zoning could make builders sod hillsides before the developer leaves the subdivision.
He said a homeowners association could take care of problems arising after they have bought property.
Taylor said there are two houses in Haywood subdivision where there is a big dip in the road.
“Land has set there for 10 years,” he said. “They are looking to us to fix a big dip.”
Supervisors passed a motion to table discussion because the engineer was not present. Jones continued.
Jones continued.
Switching streams to low grounds that are causing roads to deteriorate in places like the Coldwater bottomlands, Taylor asked if the engineer is supposed say if the soggy bottomland will hold up a road.“The purpose of two exits is for safety,” he said. “Would it work (require the developer) to go to 45 lots?”
Switching streams to low grounds that are causing roads to deteriorate in places like the Coldwater bottomlands, Taylor asked if the engineer is supposed say if the soggy bottomland will hold up a road.
“You don’t have to have an engineer to say you can’t build a house in a swamp,” District 5 supervisor Ronnie Joe Bennett said.
“Mr. Bennett is 100 percent right,” Taylor said. “It backs up to the Coldwater River.”
“I can look at it and say whether it is suitable for a house,” Bennett said. “The board is responsible, not our engineer, to make sure it is right.”
In other business the board:
• passed a motion to quit taking applications for mobile home permits on units that are eight years old or more.
• authorized rebid of concessions for the fairgrounds.
• heard Zinn plead for removal of furniture left on the side of Marianna Road off Hernando Road.
• passed a motion to rebid the ambulance service contract. Taylor said he wants five ambulances in the county, one assigned to each district, put in the Request For Proposal.