Nick Defiesta Photo
Project engineer Peter Sammis presents the plan.
What do you do with 50,000 cubic yards of dirt?
Yale is digging up all that dirt in building two new residential colleges. It wants to dump it all in Upper Westville — so people’s backyards don’t flood.
Call it a win-win: Yale saves money on transportation by hauling the dirt to its in-town Golf Course. And neighboring Curtis Drive gets a solution to its flooding and draining problems.
The City Plan Commission saw it as a win-win Wednesday night. After neighbors spoke in favor, the commission voted to approve Yale’s plan.
Curtis Drive has had water problems since it was developed in the 1950s.
Lauren Zucker, Yale’s director of New Haven affairs, told the commission Yale will attempt to help by reshaping the golf course’s storm sewer areas with the soil, preventing the flooding of properties bordering the property as currently occurs when it rains.
The first neighbor to testify Wednesday night was Alderman Sergio Rodriguez, whose ward includes both the golf course and Curtis Drive. He said he worries about the truck traffic that would result from transporting the dirt. Project engineer Peter Sammis estimated that moving the dirt would require an average 10 to 12 trucks per day for 12 to 15 months of the project’s two-year duration, primarily during between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
These concerns were ultimately offset by the benefit the street would receive from better drainage, Rodriguez said, citing Curtis Drive homeowners whose basements are “basically underwater” whenever it rains.
One such homeowner, William White, testified that his backyard has stayed wet the entire 12 years he has lived on the street. He keeps two humidifiers on in his basement at all times, he said, because of the moisture buildup that results from the flooding.
“I pay a lot of taxes to enjoy my house, and there are parts I can’t enjoy,” White said, telling the commission that he supports the project.
Nick Defiesta Photo
Curtis Drive homeowner William White questions how the project will affect his property.
City Engineer Richard Miller backed the project, too. He said that he and many of those living on Curtis Drive had attempted to find a solution for years, but discovered that the flooding problem was “not something one person could solve.”
Before the project sailed to unanimous approval, Curtis Drive homeowner Michael Westerberg, whose house is on the opposite side of the street, asked about impact on his property aside from the inconvenience of trucks on his street.
“None,” Sammis replied.
Yale expects to finish the project by late 2015.