Q: Why do apartment and office complexes always have mini lakes?
A: Two words: flood control. When it rains in a natural environment, the water is absorbed into the ground or into wetland vegetation or trickles off to the nearest stream. But in, say, an office park or condo complex, much of the ground is covered with parking lots and buildings. This, of course, greatly increases the chance that the property will flood during storms. So Indiana requires builders to mitigate this effect somehow. The easiest, cheapest, and, usually, most eye-pleasing way to do that is with ponds, strategically dug to catch runoff. Keep the shoreline mowed and set up a couple of picnic tables, and you can even market them as an amenity. Provided they aren’t overrun by Canada geese, that is.
