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Board of Public Works recommends City Council vacate Knollwood drainage easement
Summary
The Franklin City Board of Public Works and Safety voted Oct. 20 to recommend City Council vacate a drainage easement serving a detention pond in the Knollwood subdivision; staff said a replacement easement will be recorded concurrently and the matter will move to a Nov. 3 public hearing.
The Franklin City Board of Public Works and Safety voted Oct. 20 to recommend that City Council vacate a drainage easement tied to a detention pond in the Knollwood subdivision and accept a replacement easement to be recorded with the secondary plat.
Board members heard that the easement at issue currently routes stormwater across land used historically as farm field and that developers are proposing to reroute the drainage pipe to better fit new subdivision improvements. City staff said the process under Indiana law requires the Board of Works to forward a recommendation to City Council, where an ordinance introduction will be docketed and a public hearing scheduled for Nov. 3.
Planning and engineering staff told the board the new pipe design has been reviewed through the city processes and the county drainage board and that the replacement easement will be recorded before the existing easement is vacated. A developer representative described the reroute as a relocation of the existing outlet to a new easement; staff said the drainage rights will not change but the location of the pipe will.
A resident raised concerns about debris and the condition of downstream structures and asked who would be responsible for maintenance after the change. City staff answered that the pipe will be relocated into the new easement and that maintenance responsibility will follow the ownership of the underlying property after relocation; staff also confirmed the new design increases capacity and avoids existing park improvements that currently encroach on the pipe.
The board voted to forward a favorable recommendation to City Council. The recommendation will appear as an introduction on the council docket, followed by the Nov. 3 public hearing where the ordinance to vacate will be considered for adoption.
Why this matters: vacating the existing easement without recording a replacement would remove the city's recorded drainage right; staff said the city is timing the recording of the new easement to coincide with the secondary plat so the existing easement will not be removed until the replacement is in place.
Next steps: the item will appear before City Council for ordinance introduction and a Nov. 3 public hearing.
