Johnson County Drains Board adopts HO Canary drainage-impact-area resolution

The Johnson County Drains Board on Dec. 2 approved a resolution allowing a drainage-impact area for the HO Canary property, a tool staff said will control discharge and work together with two-stage ditch design.

County staff presented the measure as part of the surveyor’s report. The county surveyor said the board had “come full circle” on the item and that commissioners would need to change an ordinance to let the drains board adopt drainage-impact areas by resolution. He told the board the drainage-impact-area designation “controls the discharge” and pairs with two-stage ditching to “make room in the ditch.”

The board discussed how each drainage-impact area must be considered individually. A board member asked how many such areas staff expects to bring to the board; the surveyor said two were certain and three or four more were likely. A motion to adopt the presented resolution was moved and approved by voice vote.

Why it matters: drainage-impact-area designations formalize how development discharges to county ditches and can set locational or engineering conditions that affect developers and downstream property owners. Board members framed the tool as complementary to the county’s two-stage ditch approach, which engineers use to manage discharges and channel capacity.

What to watch next: staff told the board it will present additional drainage-impact-area proposals when studies are complete, and commissioners must amend county ordinance language before the drains board can use resolution authority for future cases. The board took the resolution as presented; no numerical vote tally was given at the meeting.