City Wide Drainage Master Plans

Why Drainage Studies Matter

Fredville takes the lessons of past floods seriously and uses them to plan for what lies ahead. The city has a long record of flooding: major floods have struck repeatedly over the past century, including several significant events in recent decades. Smaller floods have hit many times as well, sometimes across wide parts of the city and sometimes in just a few neighborhoods.

Fredville contains more than 11,500 acres of floodplain, about 24% of the total city area. The largest floodplain areas surround Bluestem Lake, Stony Creek and the Sorrel River. Sweetgum Creek, Heron Creek and Quillback Creek are among the other major watersheds.

Flooding and drainage are central concerns whenever the city plans for residents' safety, health and quality of life. Residents have filed more than 1,400 drainage complaints with city staff. Development keeps expanding, and without careful planning, new pavement and buildings could make floods arrive faster and run higher in many places. The city has already built many successful flood control projects, including channels, culverts, bridges, detention basins and lakes, but some areas still need new protection or repairs and upgrades to existing structures. Fredville's approach to planning future flood control work is described in the Road Map below.

The Drainage Master Plan Road Map

The master plan's central aim is to manage floodwater and stormwater cost-effectively and within budget, so that new development and infill do not make conditions worse, while studying and improving drainage in parts of the city that are already built out.

As laid out in the Road Map, the master plan is designed to:

• Lay the groundwork for reducing the risk that floods and stormwater pose to public health, safety, lives, property and the environment
• Protect surface water and improve both how clean it is and how much of it is available
• Encourage fair, practical and lawful approaches to floodplain and stormwater management
• Resolve the flooding problems that remain in Fredville, whether they come from undersized storm drains or from floodplains
• Create a complete citywide inventory and assessment of drainage, with recommendations for each flooding and drainage problem
• Set out an organized, financially responsible strategy to reduce or eliminate flooding in Fredville
• Identify smaller projects that can be built in the near term, and lay out a longer-term strategy for the bigger, more involved fixes
• Rank the improvements needed, from small to large projects, both citywide and within each watershed

A PDF copy of the full Road Map is available from the Floodplain Management office.

Master Plan Reports by Watershed

A separate drainage master plan report has been prepared for each watershed listed below. Copies of any report are available from the Floodplain Management office.

Fredville is a demonstration city built by Talk to Fred. Names, numbers and details on this page are sample content.