We, the undersigned, call on the City Council, the Commissioners, the Mayor and associated Officials to work in a collaborative manner to restore District 1 of Plaza Midwood to its prior ecological and well maintained infrastructure status prior to the Lyon Court Storm Drainage Improvement Project to engage on SEVEN fronts:

• ONE: The Charlotte Department of Transportation [CDOT] whose mission statement is to "Sustain, maintain and enhance the City's transportation infrastructure..."
• TWO: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services, whose objective statement is "Storm Water Services works year-round to manage the runoff from rainfall, reduce the risk of flooding, restore floodplains and protect the water quality of surface waters county-wide..."
• THREE: City of Charlotte Real Estate Division, who has a role to manage "The Real Estate Services Division as the city's expert for all real estate issues. The division advises the mayor, City Council, city departments and the public about city-owned property..."
• FOUR: Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation and N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission [NCWRC] whose role is to "Conserve and sustain the state’s fish and wildlife resources through research, scientific management, wise use and public input..."
• FIVE: The Wilmington District within the South Atlantic Division of US Army Corps of Engineers [USACE] whose mission statement is to “Deliver vital engineering solutions, in collaboration with our partners, to secure our Nation, energize our economy, and reduce disaster risk…”
• SIX: The Division of Mitigation Services [DMS] of North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality [DEQ] whose mission statement is “Providing science-based environmental stewardship for the health and prosperity of ALL North Carolinians…”
• SEVEN: Land Use and Environmental Services Agency​ [LUESA] whose vision statement is “works in partnership with the community to enhance the quality of life through environmental stewardship and economic vitality…”

The responsibilities, obligations, and duties of the above municipalities feed into the mission statement of Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte: "People who recreate in Mecklenburg County will have a system of parks, greenways, and open space located throughout the County that will provide more parkland per capita than the national average, will connect neighborhoods, satisfies public recreation needs, and will protect environmentally sensitive areas."

We ask that the City Council, the Commissioners and the Mayor take quick action due to the time sensitive nature of these demands and the dramatic increase in new residents within this area of Plaza Midwood over the past twelve years since the project began. With the significant growth, we need proper infrastructure that encourages walking, biking, and promotes safe driving.

We ask for the following elements to be considered in an EMERGENCY ACTION PLAN:

The directly impacted residents in the Plaza Midwood Neighborhood from Hamorton Place, Landis Avenue, Tippah Park Court, Tippah Avenue, Hall Avenue, Chestnut Avenue, Kensington Drive, Midwood Place, Randall Street, and Kenwood Avenue have 5 salient issues outlined in this petition (indirectly impacted resident's impacts are not specifically detailed in this petition):

1. Assess ecosystem destruction and the need to rejuvenate the impacted area.
ACTIONS DEMANDED:
IMMEDIATELY Rezone the four lots below which are being prepared for sale into an open park space which will also contain trees:

           (1) 09507114
           (2) 09507207
           (3) 09507206
           (4) 09507205

Further:
           (a) Secure Funding for mass tree planting
           (b) Engage UNC on their wildflower program
           (c) Beautification of the existing construction area(s) back to original state

2. Poor design along main creek bank (Tippah Park Court) demonstrates ineffective operating effectiveness as deterioration continues causing ground loss, fence instability as well as home stability risk, etc. This includes determining if the stream bed is correctly sized along Tippah Avenue.
ACTION DEMANDED:
Investigate specific deterioration along the creek and plan remediation for impacted residents.
Remediation of stream bank below embankment from Central Avenue to Chestnut Ave along Landis Avenue up through to Tippah Avenue.

3. Streets cracked and uneven treatment of resurfacing across certain streets around construction zones.
ACTIONS DEMANDED:
Reprioritization of city schedule / Lyon Court Storm Drainage Improvement Project demand Sealand Contractors remediate damage.

4. Re-evaluate design of two flood areas:
A] Hamorton Place underground drainage proved in the first rainstorms post completion to fail operating effectiveness due to ineffective design. The Hamorton Place drainage is not working and / or appropriately capturing water coming down Nandina Street and respective erosion control is becoming an issue. This part of the project failed and requires independent review of the design.
B] Feeder creek between Browning Avenue and Kensington Drive (dumps water into Tippah Creek) fails to accept surface water during storms.
ACTION DEMANDED:
With City of Charlotte oversight, an independent party needs to:

(1) inspect

(2) assess what went wrong in design phase 

(3) redesign 

(4) implement permanent remediation and reconstruction for long term sustainability

5. Establish maintenance schedule: To date the creek is unmaintained creating unwanted pests and an eyesore.
ACTION DEMANDED:
City to agree on who, how and when the creek will be maintained on a regular basis (Hamorton Avenue, Landis Avenue Tippah Avenue and Tippah Park Court). The overgrowth within the stream bed and the banks will affect the design flow of the storm water runoff if not maintained. The city cannot expect each homeowner to get down into the banks and maintain the open creek portions of this project. The city should at a minimum bush hog the stream banks 2-3 times a year.

Let it be known, our view is that the above are not purely improvements but basic necessities in order to remediate the area to its original state. We understand the Lyon Court Storm Drainage Improvement Project benefits everyone including the State of North Carolina, City of Charlotte, County of Mecklenburg, and Neighborhood of Plaza Midwood and as such, we respectfully request a SPECIAL EMERGENCY TASK FORCE be appointed to create and action an “EMERGENCY ACTION PLAN.”

These actions would be a relatively small investment for the city, yet would provide several significant benefits to residents in the surrounding neighborhoods and the greater city of Charlotte. We believe some of the demands are owned by the construction company; however, we recognize the City does own a share as well. We further call your attention to possible negligence in the design of elements which are suffering from flaws which is why the project is ineffectively operating in above captioned places.