Wichita destroys Cadillac Lake

In a once scenic and rustic part of Sedgwick County near the town of Maize there was a wetland called Cadillac Lake. It was shallow and occasionally dried up, but a group of private conservationists used pumps to preserve it for travelling water foul.

Now the City of Wichita, in its lust for money and development has destroyed the lake and all wildlife in the area for the almighty dollar. It is being drained to protect a Lowes that has been built there. Not only that, they are using tax payers dollars for an unnecessary flood control project so that more mega stores can litter the scenery of what was once one of Sedgwick County’s most beautiful places.

According to an article in The Wichita Eagle, October 14:

“DEVELOPERS’ COST WON’T INCREASE’

City adds

$800,000

to flood project

BY BRENT B. WESTROM

The Wichita Eagle

The city agreed Tuesday to pay $800,000 more for a project to reduce flooding in northwest Wichita that was, in part, necessitated by private development.

The change pays for two pumping stations and cash to fund any temporary pumping that might be needed after heavy rains. That brings the city’s share

of the Cadillac Lake project to $2.85 million. Private developers, who have built a

Lowe’s store in the area, will contribute no additional money to the project. .

Their share sits at $1.41 million.

The increase set off a discussion at the Wichita

City Council meeting about whether private developers,

whose parking lots and roofs lead to more

flooding problems, should bear the additional cost.

It also opened a conversation about which flooding projects the city should address first, since flooding is a problem in several areas.

Council member Janet J Miller asked why the additional costs wouldn’t be paid, at least in part, by the developers, New Market V LLC and Eastside Development LLC, whose project increased the (need for flood mitigation.

“It concerns me a lot though that if the private development is what is generating much of this runoff, or the change of the runoff that the public cost is bearing all of that,” she said.

Council member Jeff Longwell, who represents the area, said much of the water comes from upstream, where Maize has school buildings and residential developments. He said the developers on this project and on other forthcoming projects are providing more flood protection than their developments necessitate.”

For the rest Click Here.

So Jeff Longwell wants to blame his flooding on my town and school? Maize has been here for decades without flooding problems. The development here is just a response to that of Wichita’s rush to urban sprawl. Wichita’s developers rush to put in large over-lighted, noisy mega stores that pose an eye-sore for local residents. Then they blame the flooding problems they cause on people who have lived here for many years.

Once again the developers get a free ride while the taxpayers have to pay for their ecological messes they created.

And what do the taxpayers get? We lose our natural beauty and resources as well as taking away a place birds stop on their migration routs. Money trumps nature once again.