LONGWOOD, Fla. – A woman who admitted to pouring concrete down a drainpipe in her neighborhood now has until Jan. 8 to fix it, despite the flooding her neighbors have endured for months.
On Thursday, the homeowner was back at a code enforcement hearing where a special magistrate decided to amend a prior order and give her more time to make repairs to the drainage system before fining her $250 daily.
[TIMELINE: Here’s the saga of the concrete-filled drainage pipe in Longwood]
The magistrate noted the homeowner’s willingness to work with the county and the steps she has taken so far before deciding a Jan. 8 compliance date would now be in effect.
“I can see what transpired. I’m not in denial about it, and I’m still going forward,” she told the magistrate Thursday. “Trust me, I want this done as much as everybody else wants it done.”
In March, the homeowner went door to door with a letter, telling neighbors about her plans to plug the pipe. She claimed there were problems with it, and it was causing sinkholes on her property. The letter went on to state that if someone didn’t do something about it or provide her with compensation, then she would fill it with concrete.
The next month, county staff watched as a mixer truck pulled into the neighborhood and poured concrete into the manholes and pipe.
County staff made subsequent trips to the neighborhood where they saw water flooding the streets. Several neighbors have also spoken to News 6 about the problems they have faced driving and walking around their neighborhood and their concerns that the floodwaters had damaged the road and homes.
Before Hurricane Helene moved through Florida in September, the homeowner rented a pump to re-direct water back into the retention pond it’s supposed to drain into, rather than the street. It eased some of the flooding the neighborhood experienced after rainstorms in summer and fall.
When a judge overseeing a civil case between the woman and the Shadow Bay Club Homeowner’s Association also ordered her to find a permanent solution in October, she hired an engineer to come up with a plan for the repairs.
During Thursday’s code enforcement hearing, a code enforcement officer went over the timeline of what has happened since. It includes meetings with county staff, site visits, and construction plans. After the first construction company she hired for the repairs canceled their contract because their insurance wouldn’t cover the work on private property, she finally signed a contract with another company on Halloween.
At the hearing, she told the special magistrate she had to take out a second mortgage to pay all the bills that are stacking up.
“But I’m doing it,” she said while holding back tears.
Her neighbors say her actions have destroyed their community.
“She has caused so much grief and hardship on people. Some people couldn’t even get their oxygen. She endangered people’s lives and she gets off of the $250 a day?” said Pam Sabia. “She should be ashamed of herself. It has caused so many heartaches on so many people. It’s just not fair.”
Pam Sabia has lived in Shadow Bay for 38 years. She says her and her neighbors are now drowning in legal fees too, on top of the damage that’s already been done.
“We have already accumulated $70,000 of lawyer fees. Our club has to pay that for something that we didn’t even do. It was all her fault,” Sabia said. “This whole system, it just doesn’t work.”
Sabia says residents were informed at a recent HOA meeting that all of their fees would be going up.
“It’s going to triple our homeowners association dues. Triple!” Sabia said. “And there’s a lot of people in our development who are just living on social security, and they were crying at the meeting. They said, ‘We can’t pay this.’”
A special magistrate first gave the homeowner who plugged the pipe an Oct. 1 deadline to fix it, or she would be fined $250 daily. Now that that order has been amended to Jan. 8, so she has more than a month to complete the repair work.
If she does not comply by the 8th, then the special magistrate said all the penalties from the prior order would go into effect. An agenda for Thursday’s hearing shows that sum alone is $11,250.
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