Flooding/Stormwater
Last Updated May 2021
There are so many issues with flooding in Quail Hollow and Angus Valley that covering everything is a daunting task. However, there are some general topics that should be addressed. If this rezoning passes – and we are opposed to it passing – it is imperative that strict conditions be attached in order to ensure the surrounding neighborhoods’ protection.
- Quail Hollow and Dayflower flood regularly making the neighborhoods difficult to evacuate. There is no “backdoor” from the development through either the conservation area or the well field. The only option for evacuation is through existing neighborhoods making any evacuation situation worse.
- There are parts of Quail Hollow Blvd and Dayflower Blvd that drop into the 100-year floodplain and are therefore very susceptible to flooding. Any adverse change to drainage will make the situation worse.
- The fill dirt required to bring house pads up to building level is significant. Uplands known as Pine Flatwoods (there’s a hint in the name) flood on this property and take a large volume of normal storm water runoff. They work ‘in concert’ with the wetlands to mitigate the volume and quality of storm water that goes downstream. Putting fill on these uplands will block traditional drainage, redirect it, channelize it and will slow flow onto the property and then increase its velocity and turbidity downstream.
- Meeting minimum SWFWMD requirements will not be sufficient to mitigate the effects of this development on surrounding areas. We have experience with how minimum SWFWMD protections very rarely work and can often require expensive and extensive remedial intervention within a few years after development. (Saddlewood, 1998-2000s)
- In 1998 Quail Hollow Blvd and Apple Blossom Lane were ripped away as upstream a new and permitted development frantically pumped hundreds of thousands of gallons downstream adding to the disaster. Minimum protections didn’t work for them either.
- There was significant flooding in 1998, 2003, 2004, 2012, 2016, 2018, and 2019.
- Flooding is occurring more often and for longer as development has intensified around Quail Hollow and Angus Valley. There has been substantial commercial development up front at SR54/Wesley Chapel Blvd. There are developments as far east as Palm Cove on Overpass Road which drain south and west under I-75. The new High/Middle School complex and the subdivision across from it on Old Pasco Road drain south and west. Smaller developments like Westwood (Green Willow) and the Sora Blvd community (Quail Woods) and the Golf Course’ expanding community are following the same drainage pattern and ultimately end up on this property.
- The statistical model for determining the minimum storm water requirements for a development is based on a 100 year-24 hour storm event. In reality, that horizon is constantly exceeded. The developer’s engineer can run all sorts of models now. It doesn’t have to wait until after a rezoning. We suggest a condition requiring demonstration of no upstream or downstream impacts in the rainfall pattern represented by the 1998 El Nino be undertaken.