We have a 7,500 SF pond in our back yard that is shared with a neighbor. As you can see from the photo, about 80% of the pond is on our property and 20% is on our neighbors.
The pond is fed water from two neighbors stormwater runoff. Multiple 4” corrugated tubes feed water into the pond. Id like to highlight that we contribute zero stormwater runoff into this pond. The pond is ~12” deep and is dry from July-October. It’s an absolute maintenance nightmare and is a stagnant mosquito haven.
When we purchased the house we knew this would be an undertaking on all levels. The neighborhood previously was a 9 hole golf course in the 1970s and was converted to a residential neighborhood in the early 80s. The pond was created when the golf course was built. This was likely a low spot on the course and had drainage issues so was excavated into a pond / golf course feature.
We had an ecologist evaluate the pond and determined it’s NOT wetlands from their report. In addition the property doesn’t have any wetlands mapped for the parcel. Likely due to the fact that it’s man made and handling stormwater runoff.
We want to regain more usable space in our backyard and fill a portion of the pond on our property to regrade/level the yard. Effectively pushing the edge of pond out and away from the house, shrinking size of the pond. This should have been done when the house was built in the early 80s but now we are left handling all of the stormwater runoff from our neighbors property.
We intend to bring in a drainage engineer and take proper steps for the project to ensure everything is done properly.
Question…. Is this simply a case of poor master planning for the neighborhood? Anything I should consider as I proceed?
by Nixim15
3 Comments
This sounds like a huge project. I hope you figure it out. I know some cities have laws regarding storm/rain water runoff collection and things so maybe check that.
Wetland or not it performs stormwater storage. You’d likely need to get some stormwater modeling done by a civil engineer to prove that your filling in the pond would not cause flooding as a result.
Truthfully, that water is still going to be there and any fill you out there is just going to be a muddy mess.
Why did you buy this house?