Buckingham flooding problems get more complicated

The Maurers don’t live on waterfront property, but Tuesday night, it looked like it.

“Where we’re actually standing right now was about two feet of water,” said Kyle Maurer, a born and raised in Buckingham resident. “The dock that is sitting on the other side of the pond was submerged in water.”

Maurer grew up on this Buckingham property and now raises his family, two horses and many chickens there.

In 37 years, Maurer said he’s never seen it flood like this before.

“Even after Hurricane Ian, it wasn’t this bad. We got 12 hours worth of rain with Ian and two hours worth of rain last night, and you can see the amount of water that I’m still holding,” said Maurer.

Looking into the land behind his property, Mauer pointed to the only thing that he said has changed.

“Before, we used to have thick, wooded area, just like this that went straight across, all the way down, 20-30 feet wide. When [GL Homes] came in, they took it all away,” said Maurer.

The developers built close to one thousand homes behind his property.

The Maurers told WINK News that in May, they watched crews tear down and fill in at least an acre of wetlands.

Now that we’re in the rainy season, the chickens have “come home to roost.”

But it’s not just the Maurers’ problem; neighbors all around the development see more standing water and told WINK News that this might just wash them out.

“It’s not Buckingham anymore,” said Maurer.

“The development that’s being done is going to flood us out of living here altogether,” said Andrea, a resident who had her property flooded, “and that’s what I’m really afraid of, like we’ve only been here for a couple of years, and if it keeps going at this rate, it’s eventually going to reach all of our houses and beyond.”

GL Homes said they have permits, are aware of the complaint, and are working on design details with the South Florida Water Management District for an additional drainage ditch along the common property line with the residential properties south of the project.

The statement sent to WINK News from the developer GL Homes:

“We obtained permits from Lee County and SFWMD. The SFWMD ERP (environmental resource permit) addresses the minor impacts to the onsite wetlands, and appropriate mitigation is being provided for the impact. The wetland in question was almost 100% solid Brazilian Pepper and of almost no ecological value.”