Conway residents win drainage fight with Cointment and Riley

Last week East Ascension Drainage Commission, consisting of ten Parish Council members sitting Ex Officio by virtue of that status, resolved to purchase eight acres necessary to facilitate a pump station on Panama Canal.  The pumps are included in the second of two phases engineered to address drainage issues stalling development of Conway Subdivision in the City of Gonzales, and extending into unincorporated acreage north of Brittany Tower Road.  It is all part of an agreement whereby Conway’s developer committed $3 million worth of investment toward a fix…

in the single best instance of cooperation with local government we have ever witnessed.

The product of intense, sometimes confused, negotiations, the deal got done when Parish President Clint Cointment stepped in.  It never would have happened without Parish Councilman Joel Robert and his City of Gonzales counterpart, Tim Riley, who organized a citizen resistance too powerful to be ignored by the Gonzales’ remaining elected officials and Robert’s colleagues on EA Drainage.  Watching EA Drainage Chairwoman Teri Casso heap plaudits at the feet of Quality Engineering last week was cringe-inducing, and a slap in their collective face.

A three-term council member who did not seek reelection, Casso will not be missed in January.

Without the efforts of Robert and Riley, the residents of Conway would have been tasked with operating a pump inside their subdivision, backed by the City of Gonzales.  A terrible deal, unless you happened to be Jeff Vallee and Conway Development, LLC, their unwavering commitment to a shared constituency was great government in action.

President Cointment bided his time, monitoring events without public comment, until the time was right.  Going to meet Conway residents on their own ground, it was not an easy sell.  But the parish president assured those homeowners that he would defeat the necessary waiver of a parish ordinance prohibiting mechanical pumps inside Conway’s detention area (the developer’s initial remedial measure).

Everybody wins now; current residents of Conway, their neighbors along Brittany Tower Road, the City of Gonzales and its taxpayers.  And Conway Development can proceed with its buildout once the agreement is finalized.

The plan, presented by Quality Engineer’s Murphy, will ultimately result in a pump station serving the “regional watershed’ totaling 726 acres, 310 acres of which houses Conway Subdivision (42.7%).  Conway is donating 31 acres as part of its $3 million investment (a million in cold hard cash to defray the cost of a parish-owned and operated pump station (see Phase 2 image above).

That’s going to take a while.  In the interim, Phase 1 is Conway Development’s plan to build improvements that fix the current problems sufficiently to allow them to recommence the development.

• Detention basin to be constructed and property to be donated to Ascension Parish.
• Control structures to be installed at south and north ends of Hackett Canal (which connects Panama Canal to Bayou Conway).
• Hackett Canal to be regraded from north to south.
• Ascension Parish to acquire southern property for detention basin and Phase 2 regional pump station.

The entire watershed is drained by Panama Canal and Bayou Conway, both of which can rise rapidly during rain events.  Hackett Canal, with a 1′ difference in elevation at either side, channels water between the two arteries, but does so painfully slowly.  Phase 1 will, according to Quality’s Murphy, create “a tremendous amount of additional storage capacity” capable of handling “storms in excess of the original (and fatally flawed) design and “storms in excess of 25/50 year storms without overtopping” the subject channels.

This will be achieved by constructing detention areas at either end of Hackett Canal, while lowering its elevation by two feet.

Never before has parish government extracted such investment from any subdivision developer, in coordination with the City of Gonzales.  The city and Town of Sorrento cede drainage regulation enforcement to EA Drainage, pursuant to a five-mill Ad Valorem & perpetual 1/2% sales and use tax collected on Ascension’s entire east bank (inside and outside two municipalities).

Embodied in a Preliminary Memorandum of Understanding, Conway Development, LLC’s contribution:

Ascension Parish will:

• Construct and operate regional pump station at southern end of storage basin (at Panama Canal);
• Purchase property on south side of Hwy 941 (Brittany Tower Road) to construct regional pump station, detention basin, and enlarge Hackett Canal;
• Provide and operate temporary pumps along Panama Canal during permitting and construction (Phase 1);
• Perform regional drainage study and design pump station;
• Enlarge Hackett Canal as necessary;
• Accept property donation including regional detention basins and Hackett Canal;
• Install southern detention basin control structure and backflow preventors;
• Install new cross drain under Hwy 941;
• Approve a Drainage Impact Study adhering to this concept in a timely manner; and
• Allow the construction of the remaining phases of the Conway Development.

Omitted from the MOU, the City of Gonzales must approve the remaining phases of the development as well.  The city retains all development authority other than drainage regulation enforcement.  An ordinance is set for introduction at Thursday’s Parish Council meeting that would appropriate funding for purchase of the necessary 8-acre tract for the planned pump station.

 

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