CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — Another meeting has concluded, yet several Citrus County homeowners still have no solution to their neighborhood’s pervasive problem.
“I am just beyond belief,” said one of the neighbors, Ross Fredericksen.
He and others live in Inverness Village 4, a neighborhood in Citrus County with unpaved streets that are, at times, almost impassable.
The roads are nearly impassable because the neighborhood lacks drainage ponds and stormwater infrastructure.
As a result, even typical afternoon showers have flooded the neighborhood and deepened canyon-like fissures that scar the streets.
In a Tuesday meeting, neighbors launched their anger at Citrus County Government, which many of them believe contributed to the neighborhood’s plight by allowing their homes to be built without a proper stormwater infrastructure already in place.
“You guys failed us,” Fredericksen told commissioners. “Plain and simple.”
However, Commission Chair Holly Davis shot back and said the people who had a hand in building homes in Inverness Village 4 are to blame, not the county.
“You bought something that you shouldn’t have bought,” Davis said.
“The county is the easy target, because we’re up here every other week and you can come in and yell at us,” she added later.
Still, Davis and the county have said they are trying to help homeowners get out of a very tricky situation.
“I have never seen a situation like this in over 20 years,” said Marcello Tavernari, the county’s public works director. “I’ve done a lot of permitting in the private sector and for other public agencies. This is a very difficult situation to walk into and say there’s a lot of answers here.”
However, in the meeting, Davis and her fellow commissioners considered a plan that would require underground stormwater systems to be installed if any new homes are built in the subdivision.
The rule would also apply to existing homeowners who add additional impervious concrete for such things as pools, decks, and sheds.
According to HomeGuide, on average, an underground tank for rainwater collection costs $6,500 to $24,000.
Ross Fredericksen doesn’t think that’s the answer or that it would solve the neighborhood’s problems as a whole.
“This is nothing more — this is a bandaid, and once again, a slam to us property owners,” he said.
Commissioner Davis disagrees and said the county is on the neighbors’ side.
“There is no wall of no,” she said. “We are trying very hard to find a legal solution.”
However, neighbors like Fredericksen are not holding their collective breath and say they are now looking for a land-use attorney to take up their case.
As ABC Action News has reported, a complicated saga created the problem in Inverness Village 4.
Related:
- Midweek rain turns problem-plagued Citrus County neighborhood into even uglier mess
- 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 lacks a stormwater infrastructure, a fact that neighbors like Fredericksen say they were not aware of before they bought their homes.
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.
Construction of any new homes has paused, because the commission has placed a nearly yearlong moratorium on new building permits in Inverness Village 4.
The moratorium was set to expire on Apr. 15, but commissioners moved that date to Apr. 25 to give them more time to study the proposal requiring underground rainwater storage tanks for any new development in the neighborhood.
The commission will consider that proposal again during a meeting on Apr. 23.
Davis believes the policy, if passed, will help alleviate the neighborhood’s problems with stormwater and lower the cost of a future MSBU.
Meanwhile, county staff members will meet with staffers from the City of Inverness on Apr. 19 to brainstorm other solutions and seek out potential grants that would also lower the costs.
