Groups of Fayetteville's lakeside residents win appeal against the city in stormwater system lawsuit

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- A group of homeowners' associations in Fayetteville is plotting their next steps after winning an appeal in their lawsuit against the city over stormwater damage to lakes and dams in the neighborhoods.

Residents are attributing this damage to issues with the city's stormwater system, saying the system is inadequate for preventing flooding and residual damage during major storms.

"Every time it rains, it's like a river is running through here," said Judy Lee, the president of the Rayconda Homeowners' Association. "So this, all this sand, we did have a small sandbar before from the water coming through the culverts. But now this is much more. We also have lots of trash, plastic bottles."

Lee is the head of just one of the four homeowners' associations waging a lawsuit against the city over its stormwater system--also including Arran Lakes, Strickland Bridge and Devonwood-Loch Lomond. They said the flooding issues started with damage from Hurricane Matthew. However, now their lawsuit is honing in on residual damage to their neighborhoods' lakes and dams that they argue the city needs to address.

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"What we want to do is try to express our urgency to the city and say, 'we think you need to fix the infrastructure. The stormwater pipes, everything... how things flow that the city controls,'" said Woody Webb, Jr., the lawyer for the homeowners' associations that waged the lawsuit against the city. "And we need to do it quickly because you never know if the next storm, the next hurricane is going to cause severe damage, death, loss of property in the millions or billions, as up in the western part of the state."

In court, the city and residents have argued over which party is ultimately responsible for the damage to bodies of water and the surrounding roads that have been impacted like Siple Avenue.

The city of Fayetteville declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.

"We're hopeful that either the city will come to their senses and, you know, fix this stuff. I mean, we pay our storm water taxes every year," said Ron Lien, the president of the Strickland Bridge Road Homeowner's Association. "Or we win the case."

Lien said he and the other residents will keep pursuing the lawsuit for the indefinite future to get results.

"We have no choice. As long as it takes, you know, as long as it takes," he said.

The residents' legal team said they're prepared to continue with the lawsuit by going back through the trial court system, and that either the homeowners or the city can take this up to the state's supreme court. However, the residents also stress that they are also still willing to negotiate with the city out of court to find a solution to make improvements to the stormwater system that would mitigate their concerns.