ELHA board members and members have had several meetings with DeKalb County officials over last few months to discuss concerns about our watershed, especially continued sedimentation into Echo Lake from various sources and dangerous flooding of the Briarlake/Briarcliff intersection that stranded pedestrians and motorists on Dec 2015 and in February 2016 and required public safety officials to help stranded school buses, other vehicles, students, and other pedestrians.
The meetings were very productive and demonstrated commitment of county to mitigate long-standing problems with flooding, storm water drainage, and sedimentation due to intense real estate development since the 1960s without adequate erosion controls and stormwater infrastructure upgrades across this 1800 acre watershed.
This is an opportune time for these discussions because new flood plain maps have been drawn and Briarlake/Briarcliff intersection and all of Echo Lake shore line is now classified as high risk flood plain zone which has unique environmental and regulatory implications. The continued sedimentation from erosion of streams and lakeshores situated above the lake, particularly sedimentation coming from Lakeside High School outflow streams and playing fields steadily increases ELHA’s costly dredging burden.
These meetings have included various high level and technical staff from DeKalb County (Commissioner Rader, DeKalb’s Chief Operating Officer Zachary Williams, Deputy Chief Operating Officer for Development Luz Borrero, Davis Fox (urban planner for Commissioner Gannon), Director and engineering staff of DeKalb Departments of Planning and Sustainability, Land Development, Roads and Drainage, and Public Transportation; representatives of DeKalb County School System, and Lakeside’s Facilities Management and Engineering Depts; and representatives of ELHA, another HOA in the watershed, and the North Briarlake Civic Association (that includes ELHA members) that represents ~1400 homeowners.
The meetings addressed chronic sources of sedimentation and flooding and prompted several site visits by county and school officials and HOA representatives to the Briarlake/Briarcliff intersection, Lakeside HS, and upland streams and lakeshores. These visits noted several problems, including clogged, flattened or disconnected storm drains and culverts under Briarlake and Briarcliff Rds; eroded headwalls that may fail to support to outflow and sewer pipes from Lakeside; eroded stream banks below Lakeside sports fields; and a notch level at Greely Lake (the swamp across Briarcliff from the peninsula of Echo lake) that allows water to overflow onto Briarcliff.
These officials discussed simple remedies such as 1) evaluating and upgrading the performance of the Lakeside stormwater system; 2) repairing storm drains and headwalls, 3) modifying the Greely notch; 4) revegetating banks of streams and lakes in the watershed, and 4) limiting upland development along streambanks and lakeshores that flow into Echo Lake. More complex and costly solutions were also discussed, such as “stairways” of smaller flood and sedimentation controls near Lakeside and dredging of Greely Lake to increase water retention. To date, the county and school officials have allocated considerable staff time for inspections. The county has conducted a preliminary watershed study and recently issued a request for proposals for additional hydrology studies that would be needed to develop mitigation plans. The latter suggests that the county may allocate considerable sums for mitigation (e.g.> $200,000). Members of ELHA and other HOAs in watershed will seek a meeting with the above parties in June to review all proposed mitigation strategies.
These meetings also addressed traffic problems on Briarcliff, including student parking and U-turns on Echo Drive and cut-through by speeding school buses (that serve only students who live near I-85 access road and not on local streets) to avoid Shallowford and Briarcliff traffic. Lakeside officials are aware of these problems due to repeated complaints and are considering various remedies. These include different “bell times” to separate commuter and school traffic, extending dedicated turning lanes at the intersection, stressing that students should not turn onto Echo Drive, installing a traffic median that would block Echo Drive turnaround, and prohibiting cut-through bus routes. ELHA members noted several Lakeside students who are not ELHA members have repeatedly used the lake and other ELHA common property without permission for boating, fishing and parties.
Watershed residents are working with an environmental science teacher at Lakeside to use problems in our watershed as real-world teaching examples about erosion, sedimentation, hydrology, environmental management, and community advocacy for health, safety, and environmental protection.
Summary of remarks given by Katy Irwin (ELHA member) at the 2016 Annual Meeting.