Goshen board moves to require revised drainage plans after thousands of cubic yards of fill placed in Crossing Subdivision

The Goshen Board of Public Works and Safety voted April 2 to act after engineering reported that recent placement of large amounts of fill in Crossing Subdivision may have altered the approved drainage pattern for phases 2 and 3.

Dustin Saylor, director of public works and utilities, told the board the new lot owner has "brought in 6 to 700 cubic yard or 6 to 700 truckloads of soil over the wintertime," creating areas of about "5 to 6 feet of fill" in some lots and changing slopes that previously directed stormwater to the subdivision swale and retention basin. "What has happened now is those lots did have grama going down to that swale to capture it, and now it's flat," Saylor said.

Engineering asked the board to withdraw the drainage-plan approval the board granted on Oct. 31, 2024, for phases 2 and 3, to temporarily suspend zoning clearances and building permits on the affected lots, and to require the developer to submit revised grading and drainage plans. Board members expressed concern about oversight and noted staff first learned of the fill from a neighboring property owner who alerted them to an eroding "wall of soil." "We cannot confirm that the function is in accordance with the drainage plan approval on 10/31/2024," Saylor said.

A board member moved on a motion related to withdrawal of the prior drainage approval; before the vote members amended the motion to make it contingent on submission and engineering approval of revised grading and drainage plans. The motion carried on a voice vote.

Saylor told the board the city will review the revised plans and return to the board with a recommendation to reinstate drainage approval if the plans demonstrate compliance. He said the city is not seeking to block development but to ensure the work "proceeds in a way that causes no harm to potential home buyers and then any of existing" downstream facilities. The job number referenced in the presentation was 20182072.