Written by the reviewer from the ASR + docket; [verbatim-ASR] = quoted machine transcript; [paraphrase] = reviewer's wording, not a quote.
0:00 All right, good evening everybody. I'd like to call the January 20th, 2026 meeting
0:06 of the Public Works and Sustainability Committee into order. We do have all
0:09 three members of the committee present. Just two items on the agenda this
0:13 evening. First, approval of the minutes from the October 13th, 2025
0:19 meeting of the Public Works and Sustainability Committee. I'll make a
0:22 motion to approve. Can I hear a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye.
0:28 Motion carries. Next item, resolution 2026-01. This is in regards to submerged
0:38 lands lease that a resident is acquiring for some work for stabilizing
0:44 their their yard and property. I believe we're gonna hear from members
0:49 of the administration today, so I will turn it over to, is it Mr. Papke,
0:54 Director Gordon, or Director Vargo who wants to go first? Yes, I'll go. Okay,
0:59 great, thank you. All right, good evening. So the submerged land lease is for
1:06 the Krebs property located at 1040 Forest Cliff Drive. So they want to do
1:15 some revetment work along the bluff of their property and also includes
1:22 a tower with a proposed crib pier. This one that's before us was a little bit
1:32 unusual because we do have an outfall that extends off of the Krebs property.
1:42 So we did a lot of discussions with ODNR on this submerged land lease
1:49 because, you know, for one we didn't want to stop the Krebs from doing, you know,
1:56 any improvements to their property and, you know, trying to stop the erosion.
2:02 But on the other hand, you know, we have to protect our interest in our
2:06 outfall that's there in case, you know, we have to get in there and do
2:10 any work. So in doing some thorough research and that we don't have any,
2:17 we never had any easements for the outfall or the storm line that goes
2:24 through the property. So we worked with ODNR, the Krebs, and our consultant
2:33 that does all of our coastal engineering. And we obtained an
2:39 easement on their property both upland and within this submerged land lease
2:48 area to protect the city's interest as well as being able to provide them
2:56 their submerged land lease so that they could properly do their stone
3:02 revetment and their project. So what you have before you is a submerged land
3:10 lease that references this recorded easement that has, you know, we work
3:16 with the law department as well to craft the permanent storm easement that
3:22 references the submerged land lease as well that area that will provide the
3:29 city, you know, future access maintenance and that if in the future we need to do
3:36 any improvements to our storm outfall.
3:42 Done these before in the past for this very reason. This is the first time we
3:46 worked with one where there was an outfall. It's like the first, our
3:50 first go at this where we had a... Yeah, this is the first one that there's
3:55 an outfall on the property that is there. And actually, OJNR, this was
4:01 something new for them too with the private property being there. So, you
4:06 know, we worked all collectively together to make sure that we got this right.
4:11 And I'll just one more thing and I'll turn it over to unless anybody else
4:15 from the administration has any comments. So everybody, like from the
4:17 administration side, we're all satisfied with the work done here
4:20 that they'll serve the city well, the easement, and still be allowed the
4:24 homeowner to the autonomy to do their work. Yes. Okay. Any other comments
4:29 from the administration? Director Gordon, Director Varrio? No, thank you,
4:34 Mr. Chair. Other than Ms. Swallow worked with Public Works and Mr.
4:38 Papke on drafting the easement and getting clearance from OJNR,
4:44 it was a process that took some time, months. But from the
4:48 law standpoint, very satisfied with the terms of the easement. Great.
4:53 Thank you, Director. Director Gordon? Thank you, Mr. Chair. And yeah,
4:57 I mean, just, you know, just so everybody's aware that when we do
5:03 bring it, you know, to council's approval and we do bring it
5:06 before city council, at that point, rest assured that on my end,
5:10 I'm making sure that everything is approved on our end with Mark
5:15 and myself. And when we bring it to council, it is the final step.
5:20 So at that point, it's met all approvals. Normally, it comes from
5:24 the law department. But if we are going to give it to the law
5:27 department to bring it to council, that all I's are dotted
5:31 and T's are crossed on our end at that point. Great. Thank you.
5:34 I'll turn it over to committee members first, if you have any
5:36 questions. None from the committee. Vice President Baker, do you
5:43 have any questions or comments? Sure. Thank you, Chair. This is
5:49 so it looks like, you know, we're getting a storm sewer easement
5:54 over the back of their property where our infrastructure is.
5:57 And then we have the right to access along the 25 feet of
6:00 the property line. Is that roughly accurate? Yeah, both
6:05 upland and then within that submerged land lease area, the
6:08 entire submerged land lease area that's identified as
6:11 parcel one on the exhibit. And so and that's because
6:17 it appears as though they're going to build basically a
6:20 revetment out into the water to to allow for basically sand
6:27 and sediment to not so that it kind of fortifies their
6:30 property. Is that that's kind of out of the scope of our
6:33 easement. But just curious as to what the intention? Yeah,
6:35 I mean, the stone revetments really, you know, try to
6:38 cease the wave action against, you know, further
6:43 eroding their property away. So actually, it benefits the
6:47 city as well with their planned improvements there as
6:52 well with that storm outfall. Because it will help protect
6:55 our storm outfall? It will. And is this a sanitary CSO or
7:00 is this just a storm? A storm. So as far as like
7:04 future maintenance, we don't see any kind of near term need
7:08 for access or maintenance? At this time, no. Okay. And
7:13 then that's interesting. So how many how many stormwater
7:17 pipes do we have under people's property that I
7:21 assume it actually happens often that we have pretty
7:24 deep pipes and maybe don't have recorded easements for
7:26 them? I mean, we have like 58 outfalls along the the
7:31 bluff that are basically, you know, identified as like
7:39 And for most of those, we don't have recorded easements
7:43 for us. Yeah, I mean, a lot of these, you know, put in in
7:47 the early 1900s, maybe even early 1800s. Yeah. Yeah, it's
7:55 a problem for me and my day job because a lot of other
7:58 cities that have joined Metro Parks property just have
8:01 outfalls. And then they, they look at us and they're
8:05 like, why aren't you fixing that outfalls? Outfall
8:07 doesn't serve us serves you the city. So you should
8:09 probably fix it. So I'm glad it's so this seems and
8:13 thankful. The only reason I went to committee at least
8:16 because it was part of a big docket. I kind of wanted to
8:18 understand the issue better. Trust your guys's work. Looks
8:22 like we protected the city in the sense that we have
8:23 future access rights and also maintenance obligations
8:27 associated with what is our infrastructure. And then we
8:30 went through the process with ODNR. This homeowners
8:33 improving their property, improving their shoreline
8:35 erosion. This looks good to me. Is Forest Cliff Drive
8:41 one of those like private drives or is it a dedicated
8:45 planet street for the city of Lakewood? It's dedicated
8:49 right away. Okay. I have no other questions. Anything
8:57 else from members of council? Well, I'll echo
9:00 Councilman Baker's thanks to everybody for working so
9:03 hard on this. Seemed like it was a tricky one, but
9:06 now we have a system in place for the next time
9:09 this happens, which I would imagine we'll be
9:11 seeing more of these as the years go on. Trying
9:14 to protect that shoreline that's been there for
9:16 quite some time. So thanks to everybody. So with
9:20 that, I will make a motion to chair. Sorry. I
9:25 just do one. It's just a general comment. I
9:27 appreciate the directors both coming in and for
9:30 scheduling this meeting because I do think this
9:32 also serves as an opportunity to educate the
9:34 public as well. What does this mean? What are
9:37 they doing? And all of that, I just think it
9:39 just it's just a nice little educational piece.
9:41 So I do appreciate taking the time to come out
9:43 and educating the public and also educating
9:45 myself as well. This has been very
9:47 informative as well. So we know exactly what
9:50 we're doing as a city and why it's important
9:53 that we do these things. So thank you very
9:55 much for taking the time and thank you for
9:57 other members of the committee for scheduling
9:58 this and for Chair Evans. Great point. Thanks,
10:02 Councilwoman Steiner. I'll make a motion to
10:05 refer this favorably back to all of council.
10:07 Can I hear a second? Second. All those in
10:10 favor. Mr. Chair, discussion real fast. I
10:13 thought one question just to the
10:15 administration. Is this the property where
10:18 there was a lot split and a new property
10:21 was built on the split lot? And if I'm
10:25 putting two and two together correctly, is
10:27 that new construction work associated
10:30 with the need to have a revetment at the
10:32 base of the cliff or that's just
10:34 circumstantial? No, I think you're thinking
10:36 of maybe Erie Cliff. Okay. This is not
10:39 that at all. Okay. Very good. Thank you.
10:45 Sure. All right. So the motion has been
10:49 made and seconded. All in favor. Aye.
10:54 Motion carries. Thanks again, everybody.
10:56 There's no further business before this
10:58 committee, so we'll adjourn.