Historically, areas of Colwood have relied largely on natural assets that enable an informal storm water drainage system that makes use of streams, ditches, and monitoring of small, low-lying pockets of storm water that result during rain events.
Managing storm water in Colwood
Colwood staff manage approximately $85.1 million worth of storm infrastructure including 6 kilometers of drainage culverts, 25 kilometers of ditches, 35 kilometers of storm drainage pipe and 1300 catch basins. And this infrastructure is constantly expanding as new development takes place.
While there are environmental and fiscal benefits to working with the natural setting through existing streams and ditches rather than adding costly and intrusive underground pipes and other infrastructure, as the City grows there are areas where it is important to implement a formal drainage system to manage issues that can result in flooding.
Overcoming complex challenges
The Allandale area off Cairndale Road is one area where ponding sometimes occurs on private property due to heavy rainfall. An additional challenge is that, before the City of Colwood was incorporated, the Ministry of Transportation failed to register a statutory right of way or easement when the pond and drainage infrastructure was created on this property. Approval was not granted by the property owner to continue use of this land for storm water management.
In an effort to continue to mitigate flooding, the City worked with the private property owners to acquire the retention area for ongoing work to remedy the negative impacts of rain events.
This led to the City’s recent acquisition of the property on Cairndale Road near Brenda Lane for a purchase price of $2,575,000 to allow for drainage management and prevent flooding to nearby homes.
The Colwood Public Works team has taken steps to allow for access to the property so that drainage improvements can be made. Once a long term storm water solution has been established, these lands may be needed for ongoing storm water retention or may be repurposed residentially or for other civic uses.
Enabling future community benefits
This retention area will allow the City to work to address flooding in the Allandale area as well as long-standing drainage issues on Triangle Mountain. Over the longer term, managing these storm water issues will enable the development of approximately 28 hectares of vacant privately owned property in the Allandale area, expanding our community's tax base significantly.
Learn more and watch the video of team members sharing information about Colwood’s Stormwater and Drainage systems at www.colwood.ca/Stormwater.
Media Contact
Sandra Russell, Communications Manager
srussell@colwood.ca
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