Amador County - The Ione Planning Commission Tuesday deferred action on request to amend property improvement plans, adjourning the meeting for 2 months. The action was to let owner Heather Broussard consider her plans and revisions. The commission voted 4-0 to adjourn the meeting until August 11th. Broussard was seeking to have the city pay for a 70-foot underground drainage culvert on her property because, she said, the city’s new fire station was built next door and it drains onto her property. She argued that the city was liable for the drainage work on her property because the firehouse drains onto her property. Vanessa Apodaca of city engineer Roark Weber’s office, said the firehouse was redesigned so that its flow did not affect the “prescriptive easement” drainage ditch that runs on Broussard’s property. City Attorney Tim Taylor said Broussard has no case because “prescriptive easement” code says if the scope of the easement is “not exceeding historical peak flows, then the easement hasn’t changed and then there is no inherent right for the property owner to seek” relief. Kerr said rain during construction of the firehouse caused flooding on Broussard’s neighboring property because sandbags diverted flow to holding sections. Apodaca said the firehouse site was designed to hold water on-site, to keep it from flowing higher than “peak flows.” She said water may flow at the peak for a longer period of time, but it will not surpass the peak limit. After the flood, Kerr said a redesign and rebuild at the firehouse site was undertaken, and engineers signed off on the work as suitable for the solution. Broussard disagreed, saying she could produce witnesses who saw flooding on her property after the rebuild. Taylor said if another engineer says the firehouse landscaping has changed historic peak flows, it could open a legal question in the matter. The commission approved an extension of the approved tentative map for Broussard, and voted 3-1 to waive her extension fees, up to $1,300 dollars. Commissioner Mark Hopkins voted against it. Commissioner Joe Wylie said he did “not like any part of this,” and wanted to defer the issue to give Broussard more time. A public hearing at the meeting was opened and closed, and Taylor said the commission could reopen the public hearing at the next meeting, but the issue would start from square one. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.