Included is an illustration of four “dry flood mitigation facilities and one expanded detention facility,” which are also called “dry ponds” because they are designed to hold water for a short period of time before allowing the water to discharge to a nearby stream, Bolinger said. “Considering that more than 600 comments were submitted and 7 public meetings were held prior to the draft being released, the draft encompasses the needs of both the residents and businesses of Ellicott City and the West End,” Watson said in an email. The 121-page Watershed Master draft plan builds on Ball’s Safe & Sound plan and includes a series of recommendations that centers around Ellicott City’s “core,” the area most affected by floods, which includes Main Street, the West End neighborhood and the watershed. New and existing developers must now manage the hydraulic equivalent of the Jflash flood, which more generally means controlling the peak flow and intensity of stormwater. In 2019, Ball mandated a new stormwater management standard for developers in the Tiber Branch Watershed. Courtney Watson (D-Howard) secured $8.25 million from the state to support the Safe & Sound plan this year. Katie Fry Hester (D-Carroll & Howard) and Del. When Ball took office in November 2018, he began the EC Safe & Sound Plan, a multi-phase proposal to advance flood mitigation projects and support local business and property owners. Then the priority shifted to developing a flood mitigation plan as quickly as possible, and the master plan process was put on pause. The county began its master plan process in 2017 and incorporated a watershed plan in response to the 2016 flood, when six inches of rain fell in less than two hours and claimed two lives.Īmid planning in 2018, another storm dumped six inches in three hours on Ellicott City, causing another calamitous flood. This topography helped make Ellicott City one of the largest milling and manufacturing towns on the East Coast, but also made it vulnerable to a series of ravaging floods, going back to 1768. “This master plan provides a long-term vision for a thriving Ellicott City that showcases the community - its people, commerce, history, culture and natural environment,” County Executive Calvin Ball (D) said in a statement.Įllicott City sits in an extremely vulnerable spot, at the bottom of a slope where multiple streams converge. Flood mitigation projects will get priority in the current budget, she said. The document includes recommendations for flood mitigation, economic development, environmental sustainability, transportation and preserving the town’s historic character over the next 20 years through “many different capital budget cycles,” Kate Bolinger, a community planner in the Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning, said in an email. ![]() ![]() Four years after the first of two major floods hit Ellicott City, its historic county seat, taking two lives and devastating many businesses and buildings along Main Street, Howard County released a long-awaited draft Watershed Master Plan this week.
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