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Residents press for city action as flooding in Flamborough neighbourhood worsens
Some residents in Flamborough are experiencing some of the worst flooding they’ve seen in years, and they’re worried it could get worse.
The high water levels have shut down a part of Safari Road for years and there’s no timeline for reopening.
John Fitzgerald lives on Safari Road and has a very long driveway that’s flooded numerous times over the past few years.
“My property is approximately 100 acres — I’ve never seen it this bad where it’s continuously going over the driveway,” said Fitzgerald. “I’ve had the driveway filled four times.”
The City of Hamilton has closed Safari Road directly in front Fitzgerald’s property to regular traffic between Kirkwall and Valens roads because of the chronic flooding.
Fitzgerald also owns a family tree farm on the property and says the flooding affects business.
“It’s impacted us a couple of ways: one is this field behind me that’s submerged, and the other thing is the traffic going by,: said Fitzgerald. “We don’t have that anymore, nobody wants to travel down a dead-end street.”
He’s not the only property experiencing flooding; many others along Safari Road are in similar situations.
READ MORE: Hamilton officials advice flood precautions as Lake Ontario levels rise
“The flooding is just getting worse and now we’ve got trees that are underwater year-round,” said Randy Crezel, a resident whose property is experiencing the flooding. “They’re starting to die, my bushes are starting to die.”
“It’s very frustrating, it’s infuriating,” said Kari Wilson, another resident whose property is experiencing the flooding. “The city has been aware of this for years and nothing is really being done.”
The City of Hamilton is currently working on a municipal drain plan for Safari Road, which includes an engineering report.
That report was submitted to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (the Grand River Conservation Authority and the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks) for a formal environmental review, but some neighbours say one property is the issue.
They say a culvert drain on a private lot is blocked and they are asking the city to do something.
“What we’re asking the city to do is get that drainage through that property and let’s get some water flowing,” said Crezel.
The City of Hamilton told CHCH News, “the flooding is related to a number of drainage challenges within the area and has not identified any one single broken culvert on private property as the root cause of the flooding.”
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