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Brooks Lane, Northeast 13th Street residents press city on flooding; staff says stormwater master plan will include neighborhood outreach
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Summary
Residents described recurring, sometimes impassable flooding on Brooks Lane and Northeast 13th Street tied to recent infill and regrading; public works said the city is beginning scope development for a stormwater master plan and expects public outreach and an initial plan within six months to a year.
Residents from multiple neighborhoods told the Delray Beach Planning & Zoning Board on April 20 that recent infill construction and regrading are worsening longstanding flooding problems.
Rachel McGinn, who identified her address as 236 Northeast 13th Street, said new homes raised on nearby lots have redirected stormwater toward her house and that she has documented water reaching her front door during rain. "My home is about to be flooded out by the new construction that's being built all around it," McGinn said, describing damaged trees, unauthorized accessory structures and what she called inadequate stormwater controls on some sites.
Brooks Lane resident Karen Peterson told the board that repeated flooding during king tides and heavy storms has made streets impassable and raised safety concerns for emergency access. "We'd like Brooks Lane to be included in the city stormwater management plan considered in next year's capital improvement plan," Peterson said, asking to remain involved in identifying solutions.
Cynthia, assistant director of public works, said staff has met with Brooks Lane residents and installed short-term measures such as outfall and backflow-prevention improvements. She announced the city is beginning scope development for a new stormwater master plan that will map flooding issues east of Congress Avenue and prioritize projects. "We are in the process of embarking on a new stormwater master plan," she said, adding that the timeline depends on public outreach but could provide an initial plan in roughly six months to a year.
Board members asked how the stormwater master plan will feed into the CIP and how residents will be kept informed. Staff said projects identified by the master plan would be candidates for future CIP budgets once they are scoped and costed and recommended residents sign up for commission and city notices; staff also said some maintenance-level issues (such as streetlight repairs) are handled case-by-case.
What this means: The stormwater master plan will determine a prioritized list of larger stormwater projects for future CIP cycles; Brooks Lane and Northeast 13th Street were specifically called out for attention. Short-term mitigation and individualized responses will continue while the master plan is developed.
Next steps: Staff expects to return CIP materials to the board in August as the city develops next fiscal-year budget priorities and will notify communities when consultant-led public outreach for the stormwater master plan begins.
