City of Greater Sudbury changes course on Flour Mill floodproofing plan

More than a decade after Sudbury's Flour Mill neighbourhood was flooded, the city is confident it has found a solution.

But instead of building a system of channels and flood walls, the city bought the houses of the people most affected.

A once-in-a-century storm filled the streets of the Flour Mill with water in 2009.

But many came to blame a newly built hilltop subdivision called Sunrise Ridge for changing drainage patterns in the area and claimed there was now threat of flooding every spring.

There was particular focus on water coming down from a holding pond built as part of the subdivision, which locals came to call "Niagara Falls."

In 2015, Sudbury city council approved a $4 million flood-proofing plan, which was to include a flood wall across the face of the hill and several drainage channels.

In 2017, three houses and some railroad lands were purchased, and the city built a $1.5 million spillway to pull water away from people's homes.

But the city has now shelved the rest of the plan.

Instead the five houses on Mountain Street right below the holding pond built as part of Sunrise Ridge, have been purchased for $1 million city tax dollars and will be demolished. 

"People disagree about the cause of the problem," said city drainage engineer Paul Javor. 

"My take on Sunrise Ridge after all these years is that the water's the same, but we put it to one spot. Where it used to fall in many, many spots.

"We think a little differently now as we plan subdivisions. We contemplate a lot more of that now."

The developer of Sunrise Ridge, Sault-Ste.-Marie-based SalDan, maintains nothing was wrong with the original plan, although it did contribute financially to the floodproofing infrastructure built since then.

Sunrise Ridge has been approved for 150 houses on top of the hill, only about half of which have been built so far.