Neighborhood Creek Cleanup
In Spring 2023, at the annual meeting, city officials visited with neighbors about the tributary of Wolf Pen Creek that runs behind Ashburn Ave. Concerns were raised about flooding along the southern block of Ashburn, which some property owners felt was happening because of debris in the creek. The association agreed to host meetings of interested parties to discuss what collaborative efforts may be possible to ensure better water flow through the creek and what roles the city, the College Station ISD, and property owners may have in relation to this issue.
Maps of the creek and property lines along Ashburn
The city provided these maps of the northern block and the southern block of Ashburn, showing the property lines (white lines, enlarge map to see well), city utility easements (marked with boxes and shaded rectangles), the creek (blue), and the FEMA floodplain (blue hashmarks). The maps (click on the buttons below to see the maps) clarify that the center of the creek is not the property line and that the creek meanders back and forth across the property lines. Note also that the utility easements pre-date the city's ordinance codes; College Hills Woodlands (southern block) and College Woodlands (northern block) had their easements codified in their subdivision covenants.
September 27, 2023 Meeting
The first meeting of volunteer property owners (solicited primarily through the listserv and Next Door announcements), took place at City Hall in the evening of Sept. 27. Click the button below for the action plan that was devised by the parties attending the meeting. also included in this document are action items and a timeline.
November 6, 2023 Meeting
Because of the private property issues that were made clear at the first meeting, The Association organized a meeting of individual property owners on Ashburn, whose properties abut the creek. so they could discuss collaborative efforts that property owners may want to consider for their individual properties and for the creek as a whole. The volunteer property owners who attended the September 27 meeting will took the month of October to visit with the other property owners and bring them up to speed on the issues discussed, and gathered email addresses for those interested in attending a November meeting. Emails were sent to those who expressed an interest in meeting. Unfortunately, owing to scheduling difficulties, a number of owners were unable to meet. Therefore, the Association sent them a summary email inviting them to consider some of the ideas already generated at the previous meeting and connected them with each other to consider what other actions they may wish to take, individually or as a group, regarding the creek as it passed through their property.
Actions Taken:
September 29 through early October 2023, the city cleaned out the culverts under Gilchrist and Francis to promote better flow of water through the creek. They also removed the debris left from the Francis Street renovation from the creek (gravel and rock that had diminished the size of the creek bed on the south side of the street).
CISD identified funding and hired a company to facilitate clean up and removal of dead trees and other material in the portion of the creek on their property.
TAMU personnel walked the entire length of the creek running through their park on the northern block of Ashburn and ensured it was free of debris. Other major property owners along the north block also confirmed that their portion of the creek is free of debris.
Private property owners on the southern block of Ashburn whose property contain a portion of the creek were invited in a door to door campaign to participate in a November meeting (described above) and were provided with a summary of what they may wish to consider as private property owners.