Flooding is an issue in Ambler construction plan

Every eight months or so, Rose Valley Creek breaches its banks, sending two to three inches of water around the old trees, across the fields, and up to the Quinn family's front door in Ambler.

Flooding is a perennial problem in Ambler, a small Montgomery County borough criss-crossed by creeks and downstream from miles of suburban runoff. If the Wissahickon Valley were a bathtub, Ambler would be the drain.

So when a developer in the fall introduced plans to build houses on the only untouched creek-side lots, neighbors were up in arms.

"It's about more than flooding. It's about erosion, it's about taking the trees down on that steep hill. It's about sedimentation of the creek bed," said Bernadette Dougherty, whose bedroom window overlooks the creek.

"That entire lower floodplain is completely inundated," said Brian Quinn, who owns three properties in the lower floodplain. "You can't ignore the reality of that problem."

The proposal, debated in contentious Planning Commission hearings in November, would subdivide the 1.4-acre parcel into four lots with houses to be built high on the slope fronting Edgewood Drive. After another public hearing - expected to draw more fierce opposition - before Borough Council on Tuesday, a final vote is expected Jan. 20.

The controversy comes on the heels of a comprehensive new storm-water study of the Ambler watershed, including updates to FEMA maps of the 100-year floodplain and recommendations for mitigating the increasing runoff.

Jeffrey Featherstone, a lead researcher on the study at Temple University Ambler, said development "is going to have some adverse impact no matter what you do." But in a place like Ambler, preserving a small plot in the floodplain won't make much of a difference, he said.

"Ambler is tough, because the city is built out," he said. "All they can do is rely on Upper Dublin, which has the headwaters of their creeks" to do bigger projects like expanding retention basins.

Robert Ratoskey, whose company, 212 Wood Street L.L.C., owns the lot, said he had agreed to stricter-than-required storm-water mitigation. He has already sold one lot to a neighbor and hopes to begin construction on the first house this summer.

"I'm not opposed to working with the borough if they would like to retain Lots 13 and 14, the two middle lots . . . as open space," Ratoskey said last week.

According to Ambler's comprehensive plan, acquiring and preserving those lots has been one of the borough's top priorities for years. Borough Manager Mary Aversa said the borough lacks the money to do so.

Quinn made an offer in December to buy the two middle lots for $70,000. Ratoskey rejected it but said he would be willing to sell if Quinn "came forward with a reasonable offer."

Quinn said Ratoskey had refused to allow an appraisal or name a price he thinks would be reasonable.

The feud has grown increasingly personal in recent months as Quinn successfully appealed a previous subdivision plan in Commonwealth Court and began criticizing borough officials for "going out of their way to help" Ratoskey.

Quinn and several other residents objected to the Zoning Hearing Board's allowing its solicitor, Gerald Rath, to represent Ratoskey in the court case.

Legal experts say such arrangements happen from time to time and are not unethical as long as both clients approve. Rath said he obtained waivers from both clients and the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

Aversa, the borough manager, said officials were simply honoring a landowner's right to build.

"As a municipality, if we could sit there and say, 'We're not going to approve it because we don't like it,' that would be easy. We would like it that way," she said in an interview last week. "But you can't have it both ways. . . . If you purchase a house in the floodplain, it's going to flood."