Gotha family takes up arms in flood fight

A Gotha resident is trying to save her home off Lake Nally from flooding and is asking for help from Orange County — a party she believes is, in part, responsible.

Stacey DeHart and her family moved into their home off Lake Nally Woods Drive in November 2017. That following summer, rain started to come down, and DeHart began to notice how high the water was getting.

“In early summer, we started to feel like it was rising pretty rapidly,” she said. “I kept saying in my husband’s ear, ‘There’s something wrong. The water shouldn’t rise like this.’”

In a year, the water level rose about 15 feet, DeHart said. A dock and gazebo belonging to her neighbor, Mary Fernandez, has been almost completely submerged underwater, while the water levels have reached the doorstep of Fernandez’s home. 

That family was forced to vacate its home two months ago.

A second homeowner higher up along the bank, Zee Snody, also had to leave after water started encroaching on the garage.

DeHart hopes she and her family won’t be the third household forced to leave. Today the water sits about three feet from her guest house beside the lake.

“If (Hurricane Dorian) had come … we would have been in serious trouble out here — it would have been next-level,” DeHart said.

Ever since DeHart noticed the rising water, she has reached out to Orange County for help — asking it to pump the lake — only to be told the lake is private and not the responsibility of the county. 

In August, DeHart and her family sought legal counsel and had a letter sent to Orange County demanding help.

The letter contends Orange County has impacted the water levels of the lake and, therefore, is obligated to fix the issues.

“We believe that Orange County is currently and has been historically negligent in its handling of the drainage and flooding problems associated with Lake Nally by erroneously relying on the premise that Lake Nally is a private lake,” wrote James Washburn, of Shuffield Lowman Attorneys and Advisors, in the Aug. 7 letter.

The same letter mentions a report by Environmental Research & Design Inc., dated May 31, 2007, that reflects knowledge of the flooding situation at Lake Nally. Proposed remedies were mentioned.

“Inaction by the county is longstanding and continuous to this day,” Washburn wrote.

STORMWATER STRUGGLE

According to a permit application sent to the St. Johns River Water Management District, dated Feb. 11, 1998, Orange County was allowed to construct a stormwater paving project that emptied water from Morton Jones Road into Lake Nally. 

That alone should make Orange County responsible, DeHart said but added that there is more that ties the county to the lake.

According to a master utility plan presented to Orange County in September 2004, the existing Braemar community to the east of DeHart’s home across the lake — known back in 2004 as the Gotha Estates project — includes a stormwater drain that also empties into Lake Nally. 

Other renderings submitted to the county for the same community that year show that fill was added into the lake along the shore to make room for an additional lot.

Local developer David Boers, who grew up in Gotha and lives on Gotha Pond, said encroaching on the floodplain can affect where water goes. The changes approved by the county to the lake likely played a role in the flooding, he said, adding the project should have accounted for the nearby homes across the lake.

“They’re saying it’s a private lake, but when you touch it and you contribute to it and you’re the county, just like (DeHart) owns the lake, now they own it, too,” he said.

“Nobody truly reviewed (the project) the correct way.”

Boers said he’s experienced plenty of flooding himself on Gotha Pond over the years ever since Florida’s Turnpike was increased from four lanes with a grassy median to eight lanes. That’s caused stormwater to run from the highway into nearby wetland and into Gotha’s lakes, Boers said.

DeHart noted the turnpike changes likely have contributed to Lake Nally flooding, as well.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Orange County District 1 County Commissioner Betsy VanderLey said staff is aware of the flooding issues at Lake Nally.

“We understand and share concern with the residents regarding water levels in Gotha,” VanderLey wrote in a statement. “As you can imagine, it’s a very complex issue. There is a history of flooding in this closed basin, which has been exacerbated by record rainfalls last year in the area — (15.42 inches above average in 2018). There is no magic bullet to solve this, but we have been engaged in this issue for quite some time, and we continue to work with county staff to assist.”

But DeHart said the county has known about this issue for years and that it is time to find a solution.

“In a nutshell, it’s mismanagement of stormwater, period,” DeHart said. “It’s a mismanagement that’s occurred in every possible way.

“To me, there is right and there is wrong and this is, big picture, wrong,” she said. “I’ve got to stand up for it, because I can’t live my life knowing I let them get away with something criminal like this — it’s borderline criminal. You have wrecked people’s homes and, beyond that, the pollution that has occurred out here is next-level awful.”

DeHart said she has a meeting scheduled for Monday, Oct. 7, with the county and plans to speak at the commission meeting Oct. 8.