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People who live in Henlopen Landing say the waterfront views they were promised, and in some cases designed their homes for, have been reduced to mud. They want a pond once home to ducks, fish and other wildlife restored, and they say developer Bridle Ridge Properties LLC and builder Ryan Homes agreed to do so in July.
Bridle Ridge contends the pond was never intended to be continuously filled with water, and keeping it filled caused runoff and sediment problems in the rest of the development. They also say an agreement to restore the pond was contingent on a revised stormwater management plan for the project and approval of 120 townhouses not originally planned.
The resulting predicament has everyone as frustrated as a traffic jam at the Five Points intersection July 4, and the parties are finding it difficult to extricate themselves from the situation.
Homeowners with properties surrounding what is now a dry pond in the development located off Plantations Road just past Lowe’s, said Ryan Homes sales representatives lied to them and enticed them with the view that came with their new home purchases: a water-filled pond established as a viable freshwater ecosystem replete with plants, fish, ducks and even a blue heron, said homeowner Estelle Nuebling, who bought her home four years ago. However, in early July 2007, the pond was drained, its bottom filled with sand, and the only living wildlife to be seen were turkey buzzards eating the remains of fish and frogs, she said.
In a Monday, March 31 meeting, Bridle Ridge principals Preston Dyer, Gary McCrae and Joe Reed joined in saying they did not lie. “We said we will do the best we can do to try to accommodate you,” Dyer said of statements made to the pond 2 homeowners. “We’re local developers and whether it was our obligation or not, we were trying to remediate the pond 2 issues by integrating them with approval of the townhouse project. We created a plan and filed a plan with the Sussex Conservation District to ensure we could restore pond 2.”
Reed explained if developers can’t build 120 townhouses because Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission recommended that no more than 96 townhouses be built, it would not be financially feasible to restore the pond. “The district’s approval of the plan gave Bridle Ridge the right but not the obligation to build an additional stormwater management facility and restore pond 2,” said Reed.
Worse, Bridle Ridge representatives said it’s being called upon to resolve a problem it did not create in the development that currently has 190 homes sold and additional lots for sale.
“It ticks me off,” said McCrae. The pond was always on the plans as an infiltration pond, meaning the water runoff in it was supposed to be dissipated within 48 hours of a 10-year rain, he said. Maintaining pond 2 as a water-filled pond was causing flooding and sediment problems throughout the remainder of the development, something developers did not discovered until a defect was located in a larger pond abutting Plantations Road. So the pond was drained as originally planned, to permit proper stormwater management throughout the entire development, he said.
After the pond was drained, representatives from Bridle Ridge told Andrew Fitzkee and other owners of properties abutting the pond that it was part of Henlopen Landing’s stormwater management system and had never been intended to be a permanent wet pond, Fitzkee said. The property owners protested and stood on their properties with signs saying they had been lied to.
The July protest was halted, Fitzkee said, after representatives from Ryan Homes and Bridle Ridge assured them the pond would be restored.
Bridle Ridge submitted a revised stormwater management plan to the Sussex Conservation District that, after several reviews, was approved on March 3, said Sussex Conservation District Program Manager Jessica Watson. The plan permits restoration of pond 2, subject to creating an additional stormwater management facility that would be built across the street in property designated for Phase IV of the development. There are eight ponds total in the development.
Reluctant protesters
“I was told to imagine how I would spend the rest of my life with the water view, sipping my coffee as I watched the sunset over the pond,” said Susan Wendell who, with her husband, purchased a retirement home abutting pond 2. “This was our little piece of heaven we had saved for.”
Wendell said she and her husband paid a $5,000 premium for the water view and approximately $15,000 for a sunroom and additional windows to allow them to enjoy it. She said she recalls the sales person referring to the majestic pond view.
“If they had been honest we never would have bought the house,” Wendell said in a telephone interview from Baltimore, where she said her husband is recovering from surgery to remove a brain tumor.
“My husband and I have been through hell and back. This is not a battle I have the energy to fight right now,” Wendell said. She has not yet informed her husband that the pond is no longer scheduled for restoration.
Fitzkee, who bought his home two years ago, said the only reason he and his wife purchased their property was because of the pond. “I remember the Ryan representative telling me how much my little man - being my son Drew - was going to love watching wildlife in my backyard,” said Fitzkee, who inverted his house floor plan and made alterations to the house to accommodate the water view.
“Drew had even named the ducks. What he ended up doing was crying while the water was being drained and the buzzards were eating the dead and dying animals that weren’t sucked out with the water,” Fitzkee said.
Fitzkee said he has become the spokesman for the homeowners with properties on pond 2. “I’m a reluctant participant in this process. If they [Bridle Ridge and Ryan Homes] had kept their word, we wouldn’t be having this conversation now,” he said Sunday, March 30.
Bridle Ridge and Ryan Homes agreed on July 7, that they would put together a plan to restore the pond, Fitzkee said. Now, however, Fitzkee has a letter from Bridle Ridge saying it will not restore pond 2 unless it gets approval to build at least 120 townhouses Fitzkee and his fellow property owners say they never heard of until recently.
Bridle Ridge letter
“After careful consideration of the results of the Planning and Zoning Commission’s decision to reduce the number of townhouses by 42 units [to 96 total], we must withdraw our proposal to make pond 2 wet, which was conditioned upon approval of the townhouse project as submitted,” a March 28 letter to Fitzkee from Dyer stated.
Dyer said the matter is far from resolved and the homeowners’ complaints are premature. Sussex County Council has not yet rendered a decision, and if it approves the developer’s request to build a minimum of 120 townhouses, Bridle Ridge will be able to build the additional stormwater management facility to permit restoration of pond 2 as a wet pond and to provide additional benefits to Henlopen Landing residents.
Otherwise, Dyer said, Bridle Ridge will proceed with the 46 single-family units originally approved for construction in Phase IV, which will not provide any room for an additional pond in Phase IV.
Reed said Ryan representatives told him the people with properties abutting pond 2 were never told they would have a pond with water in it.
Referring to a company policy prohibiting speaking to the media, Charles Gilroy and Don Conant of Ryan Homes declined to comment on the story.
Contact Georgia Leonhart at g.l.leonhart@comcast.net
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