City staff told council Thursday they will begin targeted maintenance on Bee Creek and its tributaries after recent storms flooded yards, parks and streets in the Emerald Forest neighborhood.

"We do now have an ongoing assessment where we're looking at every storm sewer in the city and grading it like we do our streets," Emily Fisher, Public Works Director, said. Fisher presented photos from several recent heavy-rain events showing culvert washouts and a flooded Oaks Park; she said some of the county's and city's existing drainage channels were overwhelmed by unusually intense rainfall events.

Fisher noted many open drainage channels sit on or cross private property, which limits the city's ability to perform permanent maintenance without landowner cooperation or easement acquisition. "Some of these open channels in the city are located on private property," she said. "We do not have an easement over it. Luckily, the landowners are very easy to work with, and we have been working with them." Public Works identified immediate actions: clearing downed trees and debris that are constricting flows near Appomattox and the Emerald Forest park; working with the Water Services Department to raise and secure a sanitary-manhole lid on Bent Oak; and budgeting funds for limited cleanup work out of the Drainage Utility Fund.

Residents from Emerald Forest attended the workshop and pressed staff for a more substantial capital project to reduce repeated flooding. "Please do something with this creek that is actually starting to have flooding that's never happened before," resident Cheryl Wenk told council. Residents said silt-clogged channels, unpermitted backyard improvements and railroad ties used as retaining walls have narrowed the channels and reduced conveyance capacity.

Fisher said the staff's near-term plan is a clean-out rather than a channel reconstruction. "We don't want to clear-cut all of Bee Creek," she said, "more like removing trees and blockages in the actual channel, working with landowners on access and future maintenance." Fisher added that a full engineering solution would require a watershed study, permits and long lead times. "If you start getting into permitting with the Corps of Engineers and moving dirt around, that's how long it takes," she said.

Council members asked staff to pursue landowner easements where needed and to bring back a plan that includes site-level fixes and options for a longer-term capital project should the clean-outs prove insufficient. "The next step is likely a pretty significant step," Fisher said, referring to possible larger-scale channel work.

What happens next: staff will use Drainage Utility Fund money already budgeted to clear discrete blockages near Appomattox and Rosewood and will present a scope and cost for any larger study or capital project if near-term work does not reduce flooding risk.