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Utility, Estates Settle Lawsuit
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Published: June 21, 2008
WESLEY CHAPEL - Nearly a decade after they filed suit, the developer and residents of Saddlewood Estates have reached a settlement with Tampa Bay Water over repeated flooding in the community off Old Pasco Road.
The regional water supplier's board approved the $2 million settlement this week.
The deal pays Saddlewood developer Richard Haber and his stockholders for damages in exchange for setting aside 72 undeveloped acres that had been slated as the gated community's third phase. Tampa Bay Water will hold a drainage easement on the property, which will be owned by the community's homeowners association.
Also under the deal, Tampa Bay Water will pump water out of Saddlewood's developed portions should the community experience more flooding.
Individual residents of Saddlewood get no money from the settlement, according to court documents.
"This thing took a long time to get settled," said Dave Smolker, the homeowners association's attorney. "But in the end, Tampa Bay Water did the right thing."
County Commissioner Ann Hildebrand, who sits on the nine-member Tampa Bay Water board, said Wednesday the settlement aimed to strike a balance between two sides in one of Pasco's most drawn-out legal battles.
"In a nutshell, you end up with a fair settlement when no one is happy," Hildebrand said.
The settlement ends a court case that started in 1999 when Saddlewood's developer and homeowners association sued Tampa Bay Water. The community had flooded a year earlier during an El Nino.
Saddlewood flooded again in 2003 and 2005. The lawsuit was repeatedly pushed back on court dockets until this year, when it was scheduled for an Aug. 18 trial.
Through the years, Saddlewood residents have made their problems known beyond the courtroom.
They turned out in force in 2006 when builder D.R. Horton brought Grantham Ranch to the county for approval. They showed pictures of their flooded properties in Saddlewood and demanded county officials impose strict storm-drainage rules on Grantham Ranch, which has yet to be built.
Residents and the developer blamed the flooding on changes Tampa Bay Water had made to the landscape within the utility's Cypress Creek Wellfield, which lies west of Saddlewood.
Landowners in Saddlewood claim their problems were caused by the construction of Dye's Crossing, an access road to the wellfield. Residents claimed the earthen berm that supports Dye's Crossing caused heavy rains to back up into their streets and yards.
Tampa Bay Water disputed that claim, but in 2007 utility officials added drain pipes beneath Dye's Crossing and another berm to catch and hold floodwaters before they could affect downstream property owners.
Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.
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