Subdivision residents file lawsuit against developers

BROWNSVILLE -- Property taxes on David and Hinelda Sauceda's home will be lower this year, but it's not good news for them.

The Saucedas' house at the Mariposa Ranch subdivision had 4 inches of water in it after Hurricane Dolly's torrential rain in July.

Before the storm, their house had an appraised value of $121,000, Sauceda said. Now, the Cameron Appraisal District has reduced its value to $93,000, but Sauceda said she doubts that she could sell it for $80,000 since she is legally required to disclose its flood history.

Linda Cantu tells a similar story: her house was originally appraised at $120,000. It's now valued at $74,000.

Cantu said another house in the subdivision dropped in value from its original $160,000 to $116,000.

Eighteen other homeowners have walked away from their houses that flooded last year, Cantu said, allowing the properties to go into foreclosure.

The Mariposa Ranch subdivision consists of 134 lots on 34 acres near White Ranch Road, between Harlingen and La Feria. Cantu said there are about 114 houses built, and the remaining lots remain for sale.

Sauceda, Cantu and 27 of their neighbors have filed a lawsuit against the subdivision developers and engineers, claiming they failed to properly design and build the subdivision drainage system, which caused their homes to flood.

Named in the lawsuit are the engineering company Ferris and Flinn and developer Chuparosa Ltd., both of Harlingen.

David Flinn said Wednesday he has not been served and declined to comment further on the lawsuit.

Chuparosa Ltd. is a partnership; its general partner is Cameron Oaks Inc., and its registered agent is Frank Hernandez, according to the lawsuit.

Hernandez said Friday that he is the president of Cameron Oaks Inc. and that the subdivision was approved and inspected by the city and county and all other government entities.

"The city authorities signed off on it," he said, adding that the land was sold to Obra Homes, which built the houses at Mariposa Ranch.

Sauceda said she moved into her home in July 2006. Her first indication of drainage problems occurred less than a year later, Memorial Day weekend in 2007, when heavy rain measured 5 to 7 inches in her home's rain gauge and floodwater crept into her garage.

While her house was spared, other residents were not so lucky, she said this past week.

The flooding was worse after Hurricane Dolly, Sauceda said. She had to remove 3-1/2 feet of drywall from her house because the 4 inches of floodwater soaked into the material before it receded two days after the storm.

Cantu said that at the subdivision's lowest point, the floodwater was chest-high on a 6-foot-tall man.

While floodwater never made it into her home, some of her neighbors had worse experiences.

OTHER RESIDENTS' EXPERIENCES

Sauceda said she bought flood insurance after Dolly but it did not go into effect until two months later, too late for the next round of flooding that occurred in August when more rain fell in the Valley.

The Mariposa Ranch residents' attorney, James Bradley of Houston, said his clients need to be compensated for their actual losses - furniture, carpets and other personal property destroyed by the floodwater - and for the devaluation of their homes.

"But what they'd really, really like is to have the flooding problem go away," Bradley said Tuesday.

Cantu said she and her neighbors hired Bradley from Houston after consulting with four attorneys in the Rio Grande Valley who all declined to take their case.

Deborah Mason, a civil engineer hired by Bradley, states in an affidavit filed with the lawsuit that Ferris and Flinn certified that the runoff from a 100-year storm would not flood residents' homes and would be "contained within the street right-of-way."

She also stated in the affidavit that the engineers failed to provide the city or county with an analysis of how the nearby drainage ditch would handle the stormwater runoff from the subdivision, nor did the engineers provide an on-site detention area to hold storm water runoff without flooding the residents' properties.

Mason's affidavit also states that the Mariposa Ranch subdivision is not included on the 100-year flood plain map compiled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Cantu is frustrated and angry, she said, because local officials signed off on the subdivision plan and now will do nothing to correct the drainage problem.

"The La Feria Irrigation District told me, ‘What did you expect? You built (your house) in a bowl.' If it was in a bowl, why did they sign off on the plan?" Cantu said.

Bradley said the subdivision was also approved by Cameron County and the City of Harlingen, since it is located within Harlingen's extraterritorial jurisdiction.

A swift resolution of the subdivision's flooding problem doesn't seem likely, Sauceda said.

When she and her neighbors bought their houses, they were told that the City of Harlingen would annex the subdivision by 2010.

Now, the infrastructure improvements necessary to prevent future flooding are so expensive, Sauceda said, that Harlingen no longer plans to annex the neighborhood.

"Now Harlingen doesn't want to touch us," she said.

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Charlene Vandini is the city editor for the Valley Morning Star.