← Back to the list of projects

City of Ann Arbor SSWWEP - Citizens Advisory Committee Coordination — City of Ann Arbor

Developer Mitigation / Mandatory FDDP Inventory

Posted by Frank Burdick on 16 Feb, 2014
Category: Category 3 - other City projects

The purpose of this question is identify the locations of all existing FDDs so as to understand the potential availabilty for future locations.  In addition, it is to identify which FDDs were installed in mandatory areas v/s non mandatory areas.

During the 13Feb CAC meeting I heard some flak concerning... why is it important that the CAC know about the actual addresses of all FDD location.  The inference was that this data is somewhat confidential and that it should not be made public.  

My response to that is twofold.
1. Due to the accessibilty of public records such as Building/Plumbing permits.., this data is already "public."

2. Secondly, and MORE CRITICAL to the purpose of the question:  I want to see how many TOTAL FDDS have been installed in EACH target neighborhood, AND how many were installed in NON target neighborhoods.  This data could be provided /collated in an "area summary" and that would satisfy the primary intent of the question, without revealing the actual addresses.

Comments

Kathy Boris on 17 Feb, 2014:

I think it is reasonable to ask for this information. As Frank points
out, there is no need to give us names or addresses.
Dots on a map would be enough.
kb

Peter Houk on 22 Feb, 2014:

I think it would be valuable to see this information summarized by percentage of FDD completed per sewer district.  The CAC can do its job with information at that level.  We should leave the detailed house-to-house and street-to-street analysis for the engineering team.  

A document that correlates FDD status to an address (even if it's on a map) is too likely to be misused.  Do you want to start receiving phone calls and flyers from Bubba's Home Improvement, detailing our special offers on back-up sump pump installations?  I don't.  

As Frank pointed out, that information is public record and is available to any plumber who wants to file a FOIA request with the city.  If they want that information, they can ask for it and pay the city the applicable fees.  The CAC shouldn't be providing it to them for free.  And since we don't need the information to do our job, we should ask staff to focus their time elsewhere.  

Robert Czachorski on 22 Feb, 2014:

For reference, attached are the hand-out tables from our December 12 meeting where we reviewed the flow results.  The first table contains the FDD percentages by district.

Take care,
Robert

Peter Houk on 22 Feb, 2014:

Thanks Robert.  That is a good reference.  It only shows data for the 5 target areas though.  Frank did ask for the data from target areas and non-target areas.  

I'm still not entirely clear why the information on non-target areas is relevant, but it's close enough to our mission to make it a reasonable request.  

Michelle Lovasz on 22 Feb, 2014:

Agreed.  I think it goes to explaining why certain groups were targeted and not others.  I do think we need to concern ourselves of whether this is an "area" concern or a City concern.

Kathy Boris on 25 Feb, 2014:

What is a “sewer district”? Does Ann Arbor already have defined sewer
districts? If we do, how many sewer districts are there? If A2 has
sewer districts, and they are reasonably small, I agree with what Peter is
suggesting in the first paragraph of his e-mail, that it would be
sufficient, for the CAC’s purposes, to get the information requested (all
FDD’s completed in the city) by sewer district.
kb

Frank Burdick on 25 Feb, 2014:

Robert's list shows target neighborhoods
We need a list on FDDs in non target neighborhoods

Lets use an imaginary example:  Lets say that  100 total fdds have been performed.
Of these 100, 98 are in targeted neighborhoods.  
Of these 98, 95 were used for the DOM program for the developer's credits.   

This dumps  the load of the 95% of all fdds on targeted neighborhoods. Is that fair considering the horror stories we read in the survey comments.

One of the commenters above has previously stated that this was not acceptable.

We need the map with an accurate accounting of the FDD inventory.

Peter Houk on 25 Feb, 2014:

Nick, Robert--Can you clarify some nomenclature?  Target areas are defined by the sanitary sewer sub-districts that they are served by, right?  Not by neighborhood.

I would like to see the DOM and FDD data organized by these sub-districts (Morehead, Bromley, etc.).

Michelle Lovasz on 27 Feb, 2014:

I think this answer got put on "Mandatory FDD" thread exploring how close we all were on a consensus.  This thread is called "Mandatory FDDP Inventory".

Nick Hutchinson on 27 Feb, 2014:

Sorry, I might have gotten the different threads mixed up.  My apologies.

Lori Byron on 27 Feb, 2014:

[CITY]

A: Completed FDD equivalents as of Nov, 2013:

Bromley

229

Dartmoor

297*

Glen Leven

537

Morehead

352

Orchard Hills

346

Other Areas

1356*

*include multi-family FDD equivalents

A citywide map of the locations where FDD has been performed is being prepared by the project team. 

Lori Byron on 27 Feb, 2014:

Reposting this response from Nick to Peter's question. (It was inadvertently posted to another thread)

[CITY]

Hopefully this will help with the terminology.  This is part of a response that will get posted shortly on the Q&A Log.
 
The 5 study area names (Orchard Hills, Glen Leven, etc.) are simply neighborhood names that were chosen to identify the study areas, not "sanitary sewer sub-district names".  These neighborhoods typically fall within larger sanitary sewer sub-districts.  Hopefully this helps.
 
Also included in the Q&A Log post will be the following info on the number of FDDs done in the various study areas:
 
Bromley 229
 
Dartmoor 297*
 
Glen Leven 537
 
Morehead 352
 
Orchard Hills 346
 
Other Areas 1356*
 
*include multi-family FDD equivalents
 
The "multi-family equivalents" is simply a way of looking at disconnects on places like apartment buildings so that we compare it to single family homes (i.e. an apartment building's flow is going to be equal to multiple single family homes).

Also, a map showing this data is in the works.  It's taking some effort to get it all plotted, but we should have it soon.
 

Peter Houk on 27 Feb, 2014:

The PDF document at the top of this thread labels Orchard Hills, Bromley, Morehad, etc. as, variously, "districts" and "sub-districts."  What is that designation?  Should "neighborhood" be used instead?

Nick Hutchinson on 28 Feb, 2014:

"Study areas" would be more appropriate. This is the terminology used in the FDD program.

Lori Byron on 4 Mar, 2014:

[CITY]

The attached pdf contains two maps:

-one showing parcels with voluntary FDDs performed through Developer Offset Mitigation. 
-the other showing parcels with FDDs performed as part of the City's mandatory FDD program.

The areas outlined in purple are the 3 sewer districts. Under the DOM program, 80% of the mitigation must be performed in the same sewer district where the development is located. The remaining 20% can be performed anywhere. 

The 5 study area names (Orchard Hills, Glen Leven, etc.) are simply neighborhood names that were chosen to identify the study areas. 
 
Here's the number of FDDs done in and outside the various study areas:
 
Bromley: 229
 
Dartmoor: 297*
 
Glen Leven: 537
 
Morehead: 352
 
Orchard Hills: 346
 
Other Areas: 1356*
 
*include multi-family FDD equivalents
 
The "multi-family equivalents" is simply a way of looking at disconnects on places like apartment buildings so that we compare it to single family homes (i.e. an apartment building's flow is going to be equal to multiple single family homes).

Judy Hanway on 4 Mar, 2014:

Thanks Lori. I looked at the maps and found it difficult to identify the borders of each sewer district. Is there any way to overlay some major streets (ie, Main, Plymouth Rd., Stadium) on these maps? Thanks.

Lori Byron on 4 Mar, 2014:

Sure, I'll check with the City to see if/how this can be done.

Lori Byron on 6 Mar, 2014:

[CITY]

The FDD locations / DOM locations map is attached. It has been revised, per Judy's suggestion to show major streets. Please see my post above for more info about sewer districts, number of FDDs per study area, etc. 

To recap, the attached pdf contains two maps:
-one showing parcels with voluntary FDDs performed through Developer Offset Mitigation. 
-the other showing parcels with FDDs performed as part of the City's mandatory FDD program.

Judy Hanway on 6 Mar, 2014:

Thanks Lori!