Study open to dispute
Philips property final analysis delayed.

By DAVE MOORE of the Tribune’s staff
Published Sunday, November 23, 2003

The printed word is always subject to interpretation.

Such is the case with the draft version of the CH2MHill review of a storm-water management plan for the development of the 489-acre Philips farm property.

The developer, Elvin Sapp, claims the study is an affirmation that his plan will work, citing the report’s praise for affirming what he has already stated: "The soils have low permeability and the land has been under agricultural use for decades. Frequently, a hardpan forms under areas that have been tilled. In addition, the soil has been compacted by cattle operations."

But four opponents of the development that Sapp is proposing focus on CH2MHill’s mention that a 40-acre lake on the property shouldn’t serve as the cornerstone for removing impurities from storm-water run-off, as Sapp’s study indicates.

Project opponents Barbara Hope, Joe Bindbeutel, Tony Davis and Randal Clark submitted a list of comments to the city on the CH2Mhill review, as did Sapp’s consultant, Denver-based Wright Water Engineers Inc.

Those comments have been passed along to CH2MHill, which is readying a final version of its evaluation for the city. The final evaluation was supposed to be done by Friday, but might have been delayed due to the extra work needed to reply to the comments, City Manager Ray Beck said.

"I’ll assume they’ll review" the comments "and get into them," Beck said. "Because otherwise, those questions linger."

Both sides, as well as members of the Columbia City Council, wonder whether the final draft will contain all the answers they seek.

Beck said if the council poses questions that the regular city staff can’t handle, the city might have to pay CH2MHill consultants to answer those questions.

But Davis said CH2MHill consultants - not city staff - should answer concerns about the report, since they wrote it. He said that though he supports many of the construction philosophies cited by CH2MHill, the development proposed by Sapp is too large - with more than 1 million square feet of commercial space - for the environmentally sensitive area.

One of his primary worries is reflected in the consultant’s comment about the lack of models that prove the effectiveness of Sapp’s runoff-prevention plan.

Such scenarios "should be a priority in the immediate phase of the project," the report said.

But Wright Water Engineers contend that enough water-flow studies have been done for now.

"It is helpful to remember that the review process is currently at the zoning stage and not the planning and design stage," wrote Wright Water engineer Jonathan Jones.

Sapp spokesman Mark Farnen said Friday that Wright Water would design measures to cleanse storm-water, including berms, swales and ponds that would serve each of the development’s nine tracts before runoff could reach the lake or creeks.

Another major issue Davis cited is that CH2MHill recommends Sapp put aside plans to re-grade land on the property to drain 38 additional acres of land into the lake.

"This mass re-grading has the potential to destabilize soil" causing it to run off into both Gans Creek and the lake, said the CHWM Hill report.

But Farnen said it’s likely that Sapp will favor going ahead with the re-grading, because Gans Road would have to be widened and rebuilt anyway.

Farnen also took issue with Davis’ claim that the Sapp plan is too intense for the property.

"Only two-thirds of the land will be developed," Farnen said, and that development would be spread over nearly 500 acres. Farnen said developing the land with one plan, rather than subdividing it for many plans, would help prevent water pollution.

In his written application for the zoning change filed earlier this month, Sapp attorney Dan Simon called development of the Philips property inevitable.

"If not here, and in this way, then where and how?" Simon asks in the letter of application.

"This tract is immediately adjacent to the city limits. It is immediately adjacent to U.S. Highway 63, … logically, this tract must be developed," Simon wrote in the application.