Properties redeveloped in flood-prone parts of Cincinnati would have to hold twice as much stormwater under proposals city officials outlined Tuesday, Oct. 13.

The Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) and the Cincinnati Stormwater Management Utility (SMU) presented the changes during a nearly two-and-a-half-hour hearing before the Climate, City Services and Infrastructure Committee, Local 12 reported.

The hearing came three months after a July storm dumped five inches of rain in about three hours. The deluge left one to two feet of water on Observatory Avenue in Hyde Park and flooded thousands of homes and businesses across the city, most in Hyde Park, Oakley and Mount Lookout.

The double-storage rule would apply when properties in critical zones are redeveloped, requiring them to hold twice the stormwater volume and slow its release. A second proposed change would disconnect downspouts from sewer laterals so rainwater drains into lawns instead of the combined sewer system.

Officials also said the city is cleaning stormwater inlets ahead of major storms, replacing the barrier arm at the Madison Road floodgate over Duck Creek and evaluating better warning technology.

Council member Mark Jeffreys called the presentation "incomplete" and pressed for budget specifics.

"We need a lot more answers … I think people understand that these are big problems, but we need a little bit more specifics on when we're going to be coming back with plans," Jeffreys said, according to WCPO.

Jeffreys said he wants short-term fixes budgeted in the coming months so council members can act before the next storm season. He said he would rather see money go toward preventing damage than paying for cleanup after the fact, WCPO reported.

MSD's Sewer Backup Program has approved more than 1,200 claims at an estimated cost of $5 million. City Council approved $2 million in flood relief in August, and more than $770,000 of that has been disbursed to 675 residents, according to data the Department of Opportunity and Resident Services presented Oct. 13.

MSD Director Diana Christy acknowledged during the hearing that future flooding is unavoidable. She said the district does not have fixes that can be put in place immediately, according to WCPO.

At a July 23 press conference, Christy told Local 12 that fixing areas like Hyde Park "is really going to take a coordinated and long-term effort, and it is very expensive."

MSD has completed two studies focused on sewer backups and flooded manholes in Hyde Park, known as the Linwood-Observatory Studies, according to the Hyde Park Neighborhood Council. One examined a stormwater-only tunnel more than two miles long, with costs in the hundreds of millions. The second looked at detention on public and private property and green infrastructure.

After the Oct. 13 hearing, both Christy and SMU Director Jason Fleming declined on-camera interviews with Local 12 and FOX 19, directing questions to email. Local 12 received responses about sewer maintenance, but reported that its questions about several proposed measures and their timelines were not directly answered.

The city said in a statement that the administration expects to return to a future committee meeting with more detail on priorities and timelines.