LONGWOOD, Fla. – A main road through the Shadow Bay community was flooded after storms pushed through the area on Monday.
Standing water covered North Shadowbay Boulevard, which is the same road neighbors have been concerned about since a homeowner hired a crew in April to fill a stormwater pipe on her property with concrete.
The action came after neighbors received a letter in March from the homeowner, who asked not to be named.
In the letter, the homeowner accused the Homeowners’ Association of installing a drainpipe on her property without her permission and asked for compensation.
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
She wrote in part, “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.”
Carlos Barcia lives in the neighborhood and said the flooding is something he’s been worried about for months.
“We’ve got a huge problem. I’ve never seen this in any community I’ve ever lived in,” Barcia said. “Ever since she did that, we’ve had issues worse than anything I’ve seen.”
Robin Rodriguez, an HOA board member, told News 6 last month that a developer separated the houses on one side of the street from the HOA in the 1980s.
The developer then created an easement to run a drainage pipe between these two homes that flows out into a retention pond.
Rodriguez said the HOA is not responsible for that.
“In addition, as the treasurer, I can tell you that there is nothing in our records from that time or any other time that says that we ever paid a crazy amount of money to put a 110-foot pipe in the ground, and there would be financial records for that,” Rodriguez said.
Seminole County is currently investigating all options with the HOA to bring the project to code. A representative for the county said ultimately this is a private property/roadway, and the county is not responsible for funding the repairs required to remedy the situation.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: