LONGWOOD, Fla. – A neighborhood in Longwood has been struggling for months after a local woman poured concrete into a drainpipe on her property.
That drainpipe was the only functional pipe for the Shadowbay community, meaning that nearby roadways have been flooded as storms pass through the area.
The issue is ongoing, though the county has taken steps to fix the problems.
Read below for a timeline of events as of the time of this writing.
MARCH 7
The woman sent letters out to neighbors in the Shadowbay community, warning them that she intended to close off a drainpipe on her property.
That letter reads as follows:
“Please be advise that I reside at (Shadowbay address). I am downgrade from all of you in your residential community. At some point in time in the past, a drain pipe was installed in my property, without my permission. It drains the road in front of me and also a number of upgraded houses to whom I am sending a copy of this letter.
I advise you of this, because once I close that pipe off, you will have a drain problem that will back up on the road, and on your property, and potentially on my property, because the drain, as I said, goes through my property without my permission, or without any authority.
Your Home Owners Association, and people in control, knew about this and have failed to do anything about it to right the situation, nor has there even been a legitimate offer to compensate me for the use of my property for a passage of your water to the waters behind my property.
If, in fact, you do nothing about this, and my property is flooded at any point in time and there is damage, regardless of how insignificant, each of you are responsible for that damage.
I give you this warning in advance, and advise that this should resolve this by the end of March or beginning of April. I would hope that you would take care of alleviating this problem so that none of us have any problems when the rainy season is in full force.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.”
Homeowner's letter to neighbors
APRIL 23
According to neighbors, the woman poured concrete into the drainpipe on her property, causing it to clog.
Neighbors added that officials with the county came out and took pictures of the woman doing so, though they “told us they could do nothing to stop the concrete from being poured.”
Because the easement is on the woman’s property, the county and local HOA didn’t have the authority to prevent it from happening or remove the cement blockage.
Without a drainpipe to help remove rainwater, the community began to flood in the months that followed.
JUNE 11
Seminole County Public Works reportedly reached out to neighbors, offering to deliver a sandbag station to the community.
Similar responses came out of other local and state agencies that neighbors contacted, including the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
JUNE 13
News 6 reporter Treasure Roberts spoke with neighbors and a board member for the Shadowbay HOA about the issue.
[WATCH NEWS 6′S PREVIOUS COVERAGE BY CLICKING IN THE MEDIA PLAYER BELOW]
HOA board member Robin Rodriguez explained that the woman accused the HOA of installing the drainpipe on her property without her permission.
However, Rodriguez added that there is nothing in the HOA’s records about having the drainpipe installed, and it instead appears as though the drainpipe has been there since before the woman moved to the property.
JULY 8
After months of trying to figure out how to remedy the issue, county officials finally issued the woman a deadline to fix the problem.
A Notice of Code Violation states that the woman is responsible for damaging the stormwater pipe, so she’s also responsible for removing the concrete and repairing the pipe.
[WATCH NEWS 6′S PREVIOUS COVERAGE BY CLICKING IN THE MEDIA PLAYER BELOW]
She was provided with an initial deadline of July 22 — less than a month away — to fix it, or else she would face a $300 fine for each day the violation continued to exist.
JULY 9
After several heavy storms passed through the area, the main road in the Shadowbay community was flooded and covered in standing water.
Neighbors complained to News 6 that the flooding had been an issue for months, with some reporting an increased number of mosquitoes thanks to the standing water.
[WATCH NEWS 6′S PREVIOUS COVERAGE BY CLICKING IN THE MEDIA PLAYER BELOW]
“We’ve got a huge problem. I’ve never seen this in any community I’ve ever lived in,” neighbor Carlos Barcia said at the time. “Ever since she did that, we’ve had issues worse than anything I’ve seen.”
JULY 23
A day after the initial deadline, the HOA reached out to the county to get an update on the situation, as well as to request that the case be added to the Code Enforcement Special Magistrate meeting on Aug. 8.
However, the HOA learned that the woman had received a 15-day extension to her deadline, pushing it to Aug. 7.
In addition, the HOA reported that Seminole County’s Public Works engineers had been at the woman’s property the week prior, though she had yet to make any attempts to fix the pipe.
News 6 asked the county why the extension was granted. The county’s response is as follows:
“The deadline to comply was extended for two weeks until August 7th as we complete a title search. The title search is needed to complete the County investigation on the ownership of the Drainage Easement.
A new letter was sent to the homeowner advising of the extension. If nothing happens by then, the issue would go before the magistrate for the first meeting, and that would be on September 12th.”
Seminole County Public Information Manager Andy Wontor
JULY 25
News 6 spoke with neighbors following news of the extended deadline.
Catherine Bourne — whose senior parents moved to the neighborhood four years ago — said there’s been plenty of flash flooding.
“When they go to church in the morning, they’re nervous,” she said. “They’re praying they’re able to get back into the neighborhood without my dad’s car flooding.”
Meanwhile, neighbor Jennell Taylor purchased her home in the community just a day before the concrete was poured.
“How and why would someone do this?” she told News 6. “It so obviously hurts all of your neighbors. And the worst part: it impacts her herself.”
SEPTEMBER 6
Detectives responded to the Shadowbay community after the neighborhood experienced some of the worst flooding since the drainpipe became clogged.
The major flooding came as a series of heavy storms swept through the region.
“Just an afternoon thunderstorm was going to give us what we normally see anywhere else during a hurricane,” the HOA’s director claimed.
Deputies in the neighborhood went door-to-door, taking statements from affected homeowners.
However, the sheriff’s office told News 6 that it was “still in the very early stages of our inquiry and do not anticipate making any arrests (on Sept. 6).”
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