County Commissioner John Stacy said residents have approached him about this issue several times prior.
FATE, Texas — Keith Pickron has called Rockwall County home for the last 30 years. It’s the country life that brings him peace.
“That’s how you know you’re in the country, when you pull up, the chickens meet you at the car,” he said.
Pickron lives right next to a fairly new development called Edgewater, located in Fate, Texas.
Pickron claims that when they get heavy rain, construction from the new development has caused his and some of his neighbor’s properties to flood.
“When we got out here, there was nothing out here,” he said. “When it rains, aw m an, it floods me out.”
“It’s all underwater, that’s not an exaggeration,” Mike Arney, who lives right beside Pickron, told WFAA.
County Commissioner John Stacy said residents have come to him about this issue several times before.
“When that was just a field of black dirt, there were no issues,” Stacy said. “The only thing that’s changed is the houses getting built.”
A city spokesperson said in a statement to WFAA: “All developments are meticulously designed and reviewed by licensed engineers, in compliance with state and local codes, and verified to ensure that the improvements do not result in lot-to-lot drainage issues. Drainage from this development will be retained in ponds and will be discharged into creeks at a slow enough rate to ensure it doesn’t exceed previous levels of discharge.”
The spokesperson said multiple retention ponds are being built to manage stormwater. Once the project is complete, the city said these measures will help prevent further flooding concerns.
“I think this is a simple case of a big development coming in, and the water’s going in the wrong spot,” Stacy said.
For Pickron, he just wants a solution.
“I don’t have a $750,000 home, but I have a home,” he said. “And I don’t want to have to come out in my backyard with a paddle boat.”
