An engineer blamed faulty piping and ditches for flooding in Soddy-Daisy's Plantation Estates subdivision at a Thursday public hearing on the issue.
The City Commission hired an engineering firm to study the severe flooding that has affected many of the subdivision's residents.
Joe Wise, of David Matthews Mapping and Engineering, the firm that conducted the study, said undersized pipes and inadequate sloping are causing most of the problems within the development. Mr. Matthews said the drainage system was not built according to its design.
"It doesn't follow the way it was planned," he said.
Mr. Matthews said most of the problems are evident in ditches, where severe erosion occurs, clogging the ditches, which aren't steep enough.
"In some places it slopes uphill," he said. "And you don't have to have an engineer tell you that's not how it's supposed to be."
Several residents called on the city, or some other regulatory body, to take action.
But City Attorney Sam Eliott said the city could not legally fix infrastructure problems on private property.
"The city can do work on public property. This is a private development. You each bought property from a private developer," he told residents. "It is illegal for us to work on a private easement."
Tom Million, who lives in the subdivision, said the erosion has left five-foot holes in some yards, posing a significant safety concern.
"Our property is being washed away," he said.
Soddy-Daisy Mayor Gene Shipley tried to reassure residents that the city would do what it could to fix the problems where it could.
"Before you get mad at the city commission, give us a chance to work on this," he said. "If we weren't interested in helping you, we wouldn't have spent the money to conduct this study."
Mr. Shipley said the commission will take recommendations of the study into consideration and look at fixing clogged drains and ditches on city property.
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Thanks for printing the story. As one of the residents, we've been battling this problem for over a year now. What it comes down right down to it, the developer did a sub-standard job, cutting corners to save money, and now it's affecting probably half the people in the subdivision. Everyone has continued to point their finger at everyone else, and play the "blame game" but all we want is the problem fixed. My personal opinion is that the work was very sloppy, but that the City of Soddy-Daisy SHOULD have been watching the developer, and they dropped the ball or turned their heads. Their attorney Mr. Elliott keeps reminding us that the City can not come on our property and fix anything because they'll be violating the TCA Code. However, as we have pointed out to him on several occassions, in the Soddy-Daisy Subdivision Rules, straight from their website, it states that "paragraph 209, Inspections - The Public Works Director or his/her designated representative shall be responsible for inspecting roads, drainage structures, drainage ways or easements, etc., to assure proper completion and constsruction of all improvements in accourdance with the plat and theser regulations? (Page 13 for you Mr. Elliott) How much more clear does it have to be? And had the Public Works Director been doing his job properly, we wouldn't have this problem.
This is not a public problem. This is the problem of the property owners. Let them sue the developer or pay for the needed corrections themselves.
While I'm sorry for their troubles, it's not the responsibility of taxpayers to do anything about it.
"Let the buyer beware" still applies. The buyers SHOULD have been watching the developer, not relying on the government to do the buyer's job.
Harry Statel
Mr. Statel,
In reference to your statement, "Let Buyers Beware", let me ask you...did you buy your home under those assumptions? Should I have asked if there was insulation behind my drywalls? Or, did our street get used for meth parties at night? Totally ridiculous to not see that this neighborhood, Plantation Estates, is INSIDE the city limits of Soddy Daisy and that makes it a CITY problem. The developers of this subdivision violated laws, period! The city also own some of the problems as well because they did not inspect the work as it was intended to be done. Ditches were moved improperly without approval and these same ditches are destroying the city's property, the culverts, the pipes, the catch-basins, etc.. So, yes, taxpayers like us, want someone other than US to step up and do what is necessary to resolve this problem.
The engineers said in the last meeting that the city and the developer were both at fault! Go to City Hall and get yourself a report of what was PROVEN. Finally, I bought my home here with good faith that all laws in building and developing was done according to state and federal laws and I should not have to assume there are problems like this for me to find out at a later time.
I think the city will at some point come to the realization that government is OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people. That means that we are ALL in this together. If laws were broken, and they were, someone should step up and pay for it. It is WE that have been infringed on.