Shaker Farms Country Club’s entrance
Republican file photo
WESTFIELD — The City Council voted 9-3 to settle a civil lawsuit for $1.275 million filed against the city by Shaker Farms Country Club in 2024.
The club alleged the city had failed in its obligation to manage the stormwater drainage system that had repeatedly flooded the golf course, in particular, the sixth green.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court on Dec. 17, 2024 by attorney Donald P. Nagle on behalf of Shaker Farms Inc., under section 505 of the Clean Water Act that sought declaratory judgment, injunctive relief and other relief with respect to actions and failure to act by the city of Westfield for unauthorized discharge.
The lawsuit came after owners Daniel and Nancy Kotowitz repeatedly requested the city in public meetings to rectify the issue, going back to at least 2013, according to a story in The Westfield News in October 2014.
“Shaker Farms Country Club owner, Dan Kotowitz, appearing before the Board of Public Works in October of 2013, said that ‘a huge amount of runoff’ from the stormwater pipe collecting water in the Falley Drive neighborhood is flooding the course near the sixth green,” according to the 2014 story.
“Kotowitz said at the BPW meeting that the sixth hole, a 565-yard uphill dogleg and the hardest hole on the course, lies at the bottom of the Shaker Heights bluff, and that the water ‘is coming down onto our property’ from the bluff, and requested the Board of Public Works to take what action the city could take to eliminate that storm-related flooding.”
After meeting in executive session for nearly an hour during its meeting on Jan. 15, the City Council reconvened and voted 9-3 for the appropriation of $1.275 million from free cash requested by Mayor Michael McCabe. Voting no were Daniel Knapik, Brent Bean and James Adams.
None of the councilors made any comments about the settlement.
In another instance during public participation at a City Council meeting on Oct. 4, 2018, Daniel Kotowitz repeated his claim that stormwater runoff was ruining the sixth hole on his golf course, making it unplayable and hurting his business. He said stormwater runoff was also coming into the entrance of his parking lot.
The Kotowitzes alleged in the lawsuit that the city claimed the right to discharge stormwater from public roadways onto Shaker Farm Country Club property by an easement in 1961, which granted the “right to construct and duty to maintain a water pipeline and drainage ditch for drainage purposes.”
The easement that was granted referred to a 30-inch pipe over 300 feet to an intermittent brook.
They also alleged that there was no evidence that the city ever constructed a new 30-inch pipe, or that any pre-existing pipe exists on the premises, although the city has directed stormwater from several subdivisions to a 24-inch pipe outlet from which water flows towards the club.
The Kotowitzes alleged in the lawsuit that “the city’s overburdening misuse of and failure to maintain the drainage easement on the Shaker Farms’ property has resulted in storm water runoff to SFI property well beyond the ten (10) foot wide easement.”
The Kotowitzes also alleged the city previously assumed responsibility for maintenance of its stormwater conveyance by placing large angular rip rap stones below the outlet of the 24-inch pipe, but failed to undertake any other management, causing “extensive ongoing erosion” down gradient of the rip rap and resulting in continuing erosion impacting the sixth fairway and onto the fifth hole during storm events.
Initially, the Kotowizes requested relief and a jury trial because of repeated attempts by them to compel the city to document and mitigate the illegal discharge of stormwater, and the city’s acknowledgement of its legal obligation to do so.
“[It] utterly failed to take action,” the Kotowizes alleged.
On Dec. 9, 2025, a joint motion was filed by both parties in the U.S. District Court to extend the plaintiff’s motion to amend filed the previous November to add a claim against the city.
According to the Dec. 9 motion, the parties reached an agreement in principle to resolve the claims at issue, and expected to reach a settlement agreement and dismiss the case.
Reached by phone on Jan. 16, Nagle said the $1.275 million approved by the City Council will settle the matter.
He said Shaker Farms will construct new stormwater management improvements. Once completed, the city will take over the operation and maintenance of repair of the newly constructed stormwater system, in compliance with the Clean Water Act.
Nagle said there will be an agreement for judgment in Land Court, where there is also a case. Once that agreement for judgment is entered, Shaker Farms will dismiss the Clean Water Act case in federal court.
