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Waiting game
Residents at The Farm at Willow Creek still living with collapsed roads, stormwater system
Heather Mays - Thu, Mar, 3, 2011
Residents at The Farm at Willow Creek are still waiting for an end to the problems in the subdivision’s drainage system, months after a developer bought the remaining unsold lots and promised a fix.
Freeman Webb Inc. bought the unoccupied lots in Willow Creek from GreenBank, which had foreclosed on the subdivision and seized the lots upon initial developer Chip Leonard’s declaration of bankruptcy. Leonard had been involved in litigation over the state of the subdivision’s faulty stormwater drainage system for years.
Nearly six months ago, the town of Farragut entered into an agreement with Freeman Webb to share the cost of repairing the drainage system, which would be triggered by the developer’s initial payment of $300,000.
The money hasn’t yet come through.
“We’re waiting on them,” said Town administrator David Smoak.
“Staff has already done everything we can in preparation for being able to bid that project out, but we obviously can’t bid it out until we receive the payment that will trigger us to get started,” he added.
The Farm at Willow Creek drainage system has been leaking water, causing damage to roads and infrastructure in the subdivision, resulting in washouts and the collapse of a road in the subdivision and a partial collapse of sidewalk along Evans Road, which the subdivision fronts.
“I’m sure they’d like to get started as soon as possible to get things repaired up there and start marketing their property. But it’s up to them; really, the ball is in their court right now and we’re just waiting on them to get everything started,” Smoak said.
Kent Burns of Freeman Webb said the faulty drainage system wasn’t the only problem the company had to untangle.
“They also did not properly finalize all the items relating to the homeowners’ association. So we’ve had to go through a very methodical process to properly reinstate and organize the homeowners’ association,” Burns said.
A Board has been elected and by-laws written, and once the homeowners’ association has its inaugural meeting and the by-laws have been adopted, Burns said Freeman Webb would move forward with sending money to the Town.
“We didn’t want to go put the money up with the city until we had the homeowners’ association in the proper format because we really couldn’t operate it until we had it properly formed.
“Because it wasn’t done right on the front end, it’s been a timely process to try to get all of that set up,” Burns said.
In addition to the $300,000 up-front payment from Freeman Webb, the Town will use a $165,000 letter of credit from Leonard to repair the stormwater drainage system. Freeman Webb will kick in an additional $142,500, if necessary, but no more.
Any further cost will be born by the Town.
“We felt like it was better to have the city do the work instead of us, because everyone would feel more comfortable that if the city is doing the work, most people would think the city is going to do it right,” Burns said.
At the August Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting when the contract was approved, Town Engineer Darryl Smith presented three “fix-it” options: a full replacement of all 1,100 feet of faulty drainage system, a repair of the existing pipes or a “hybrid” repair/replacement.
The replacement option would call for concrete pipe to replace the faulty 42-inch spiral-ribbed metal pipe and for installing a liner in the subdivision’s pond, and could cost as much as $800,000.
The repair solution cost could be about $425,000, while the “hybrid” solution could cost between $650,000 and $700,000.
Once Freeman Webb pays Farragut the $300,000 initial fee, the Town will have six months to repair the stormwater system and the roads.
“Our plan is to move forward and really get this neighborhood back on track,” Burns said.
“Once we take these issues out of the way, we feel that it’s going to be a wonderful neighborhood for the city,” he added.
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