Finally, man can leave his flood-prone home

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Finally, man can leave his flood-prone home

07/30/2006

By

Staff Writer

bryan.brooks

@gwinnettdailypost.com

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Gwinnett County, Georgia

AUBURN — Patience finally paid off for Jeff Parks.

After 12 years of living at a residence that frequently flooded and

enduring the associated problems, including overflowing toilets and

mold, he is moving to another subdivision less than two miles away.

A $235,000 payment from the city of Auburn and a developer are

helping him pay for the new digs.

In June, the two settled a lawsuit Parks filed alleging the city and

Dun-Bach Associates were responsible for stormwater that began

inundating Parks' property after a subdivision was built nearby.

Messages left with both were not returned.

Before the Blackberry Farms subdivision was built in 1994, Parks had

no flooding problems. But after homes started going up about 100

yards away inside the Auburn city limits, his water woes began.

His first indication was when he came home from work one rainy day

and found his garden washed into the road and a small ditch carved

through his yard.

Parks approached the developer and the city, and both took a stab at

stopping the flooding, but the measures — the developer sowed grass

seed, the city dug a ditch that eventually clogged with silt — did

not work.

The years passed and Parks' problems only got worse.

In 2003, heavy rains drove him from his home at 292 Wages Road for

three months, forcing him and his wife to live with his parents.

While the water never got inside his house, it did pool beneath it,

damaging his heating and air conditioning system and causing mold

problems.

And the frequent ponding in his backyard disrupted his septic tank,

causing the toilet to overflow and preventing its use.

Parks also suspected the mold caused health problems for his family.

For one decade, Parks complained to bureaucrats and politicians big

and small, but none helped him.

Some Auburn officials even admitted the water was coming from the

Blackberry Farms subdivision, and said the city shared some of the

blame.

In 2004 Auburn Mayor Harold Money told the Gwinnett Daily Post that

the stormwater problem was the city's fault and the he was trying to

fix it.

He said he couldn't get a majority of the City Council to support

spending $1,000 to construct a ditch that would carry the water off

Parks' property.

Such a measure was recommended by a engineering study the City

Council had commissioned a year earlier.

In 2005, Parks hired and attorney and sued Auburn and the developer.

Parks said his home is now worthless and cannot be sold. The

settlement is compensation for that.

" I was gullible the first few years, " said the Gwinnett County

employee. " They said they would fix it, but they didn't. "

Parks' attorney said the city settled because it was liable for the

damage.

" They basically had admitted it in your newspaper article, so it was

going to be hard for them to not have to pay, " said Larry .

" I have never seen anybody as patient as the Parks. They waited

years and years and gave them chance after chance. "