County stands firm on flood channel at Rhodes Ranch

Adrienne Packer

Thursday, Jan. 18, 2001 | 10:55 a.m.

Although the final decision on the placement of a drainage ditch was delayed again Wednesday, Clark County officials confirmed that the channel will remain on Rhodes Ranch property.

Public Works engineer Denis Cederberg told Clark County's zoning board the draft plan calls for a 10-foot-wide, 10-foot-deep concrete channel to run along the west side of Durango Drive south of Warm Springs Road.

The designs were forwarded to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers on Wednesday to allow the agency to determine whether water can effectively and safely pass through the channel that will abut a neighborhood.

Regional Flood Control District Director Gale Fraser said the Corp of Engineers will make its recommendation on Feb. 14 and the county commission will consider the final plans Feb. 21.

Rhodes Ranch developers requested last spring that the county move the drainage ditch to public land on the east side of Durango where a park and two golf courses are planned. The relocation of the channel would have allowed Rhodes to build 30 more homes in the new development.

County planners have strongly opposed the proposal since it was introduced.

Commissioner Erin Kenny, who lives in the Rhodes Ranch development and is friends with developer Jim Rhodes, has pushed the relocation of the channel and even showed up at a county staff meeting to discuss the proposal.

Rhodes acquired the 17-acre strip of land west of Durango from the Bureau of Land Management during a 1995 land exchange. The value of the property was reduced by nearly $200,000 with the understanding the one-mile section of the drainage ditch would be built on the land.

The Flood Control District initially planned a 100-foot easement to accommodate the channel, but has reduced it to 40 feet. Fraser said Rhodes officials hope to further reduce the easement to 25 feet.

"Whatever the Corp of Engineers decides is going to work is what we're going to need," Fraser said.

County commissioners assured residents in the southeast region that Wednesday's delay was the last and a decision will be made in February.