New Taylor subdivision under water, residents boil with anger

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Monday night's stormy forecast is the last thing residents of a new development in Taylor want to hear.

They are already dealing with flooding and for a newly built subdivision, they don't understand why they are having this issue. The city says there is debris blocking a county drain 

"You can't even let your kids play in the backyard because of the flooding," said resident Latrice Hughes.

There was so much water in Charter Oaks Village in Taylor that backyards became lakes and streets turned into rivers.

The rainfall over the weekend flooded the subdivision and now homeowners' frustrations are overflowing because this has been an ongoing issue.

"I'm most concerned about the flooding and the backing up into the basement," said Hughes. "And the property value."
 
Taylor's Department of Public Works says a retention pond isn't draining properly.

"The retention pond is tied into the county drain," said Randy Smith, public works. "And with the county drain being so high right now it's taking a while to lower the rate of water.

"It just depends on how clear the county drains are. Sometimes there can be debris and it can be trees, different riff raff, stuff like that, can cause it to drain slower."

But residents feel there's more to the story and point to the water pooling in their backyards as proof.

"You've got to be able have availability for the water to run off," said Dennis Martin. "The water is supposed to be running off to that retention pond but there's no water culverts, no culverts for this water to escape."

A homeowner’s association board member said there were a number of things the developer failed to complete when building this subdivision - and the drainage and flooding issues may just the tip of the iceberg.

The mayor says there was little oversight when Charter Oaks was built, and that it happened during the previous administration.  Now those who just bought homes here are paying for it.

"I just want the issue resolved," Hughes said. "I mean we shouldn't have this type of water and this type of flooding in a new development.  And for everybody playing the blame game, we pay taxes, we pay our home owner association fees, there's no reason for this."

FOX 2 reached out to the developer --no response. Wayne County says it will have a team come out in the morning and confirm that drain mentioned in the story is actually there’s. If so they will clear out the debris.

The home owner's association has been in a long legal fight with the developer and right now they are in arbitration.