CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — In a wheelchair almost 24-7, Kerri Gladden can access most places with relative ease: public parks, grocery stores, and restaurants.
However, there is one place she can’t get around — her own neighborhood.
“It’s a complete and utter disaster,” said Gladden, who has needed to use a wheelchair ever since a back injury four years ago. “I have three different types of wheelchairs in my home, and neither of them will go anywhere.”
Gladden lives in Inverness Village 4, a neighborhood in Citrus County with unpaved streets that are, at times, almost impassable.
Right now is one of those times after heavy rain fell in the area on Wednesday afternoon.
Videos recorded by neighbors show the rainfall transformed the shabby streets into miniature whitewater rivers. Once the rain stopped and the water dried up, the streets were marred with canyon-like scars.
Viewers share videos of their problem-plagued Citrus County neighborhood after rain:
“It’s a complete and utter disaster."
Some roads are now nearly impassable. Some driveways are now undermined for the stormwater-caused erosion.
“There’s nowhere for any of the water to go, so the more water comes — the more often it rains — the worse it gets,” Gladden explained.
As ABC Action News has reported for months a complicated, confusing saga has created the problem in Inverness Village 4.
Related:
- Meeting set to brainstorm solutions to Citrus County neighborhood’s mess
- Neighbors point out dangerous intersection in subdivision that's a sandy mess
- Citrus County parents say neighborhood's 'mess' is hurting their children's wellbeing
- Weekend rain exacerbates potholes, canyons in Citrus County neighborhood
- Citrus County asks Florida AG to investigate if 'organized scheme' caused neighborhood's mess
Though Citrus County owns the streets, it has not accepted maintenance of the neighborhood’s rights-of-way.
When they bought homes in the neighborhood, homeowners were made aware they would need to foot the bill to have the streets paved. They thought a Municipal Service Benefit Unit (MSBU) would be established between them and the county. Such an agreement would have allowed homeowners to pay for the pavement on their tax bills over the span of ten years.
Homeowners expected to pay around $6,500 per household.
However, more recently, they learned the price could be a lot higher because the neighborhood also needs drainage ponds and stormwater infrastructure. Such an infrastructure was never installed as homes were built over time.
The price tag for paving and drainage could be $109,000 per household — a steep cost that has led to an ongoing impasse between the county, homeowners, and the person who sold many of the lots on which homes were built and still owns more than 40 remaining lots.
Neighbors like Janeen Eddie put most of their blame on Citrus County than those who sold the lots and built homes on them.
“There’s a reason government’s there, and that is to protect the taxpaying residents of your county,” she said. “They dropped the ball, and we are now paying for it.”
She and others feel the county should not have allowed the neighborhood to be built without an infrastructure in place.
In a Frequently Asked Questions section of its website, Citrus County says it couldn’t deny the building permits in the neighborhood despite objections from the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
It says it’s also “confident” emergency vehicles can traverse the deeply-scarred, pothole-covered roads.
However, after Wednesday’s rain exacerbated the damage, ABC Action News emailed the county, asking, “Are emergency vehicles still able to navigate through the neighborhood after the erosion that occurred Wednesday evening? Have they checked since Wednesday?”
A spokesperson responded, in part:
Neighbors like Ruben Crespo aren’t so sure.
“There is no way these roads are passable. Even when it’s not raining, it’s bad. The roads have been so eroded and so much of it has gone, it’s incredible,” he said. “People drive down the road, and they’re driving on people’s lawns just to get by.”
Even though Crespo, a homeowner in Inverness Village 4, also blames the people who had a hand in creating the neighborhood, he believes the county failed because it allowed the neighborhood to be built unchecked, and it allows the problems to persist.
“The county doesn’t give a d*** about us,” he said. “In a third-world country I would expect something like this. A communist country, I’m sorry to say. But, this is what you expect in a communist country. Roads — they don’t care about the citizens that live here and pay taxes. And that’s — that’s horrible.”
As ABC Action News reported last week, the county plans to meet with the City of Inverness on April 19th to start brainstorming solutions. Neighbors say it is imperative they find one.
