The residents/HOA Board members of Scenic Hills have approached city staff and councilmembers via the Hearing of Residents, to express concern and frustration over the costs they are having to bear for maintaining the drainage infrastructure in their neighborhood, a gated community. Their feeling is that since the drainage infrastructure, corrugated metal pipes, conveys flow through their neighborhood from developed areas outside their neighborhood, the City should bear the cost of maintenance. Further, they believe the infrastructure installed was not sized to accommodate the off-site developed flows, and that the volume of off-site drainage damaged the pipes, causing the need for the replacement. They indicated that the sections of pipe they replaced on two previous occasions, were smaller than was indicated on the construction plans, further exacerbating the issue that led to the damage and noting the City did not verify the pipe sizes before the neighboring property was developed. They have pointed out the City made improvements to the system, a street grate and an additional section of underground pipe that caused some of the problems and increased their maintenance responsibility. 

Scenic Hills is unique in that it was annexed after it was developed, so the City was not involved in the approval or inspection process. Also, it is a gated community. While it is not uncommon for HOAs of residential neighborhoods to maintain drainage infrastructure outside of the right-of-way, where a neighborhood is not gated, the City would maintain the streets and drainage infrastructure in the right-of-way. When the City replaced the section of metal pipe under Country Club Boulevard that is connected to Scenic Hills, the age of the pipe seemed to be a significant factor in the failure. Staff has met with the HOA group to discuss the situation and understand their concerns.