In August, Tropical Storm Debby swept through Cumberland County, causing flooding, road closures and power outages. In one case, a sinkhole that split apart a road in the Rayconda subdivision in West Fayetteville and destroyed the culvert beneath it.
Now, two months after the storm, the sinkhole is still there.
But the city may now be doing something to mitigate the damage caused by the tropical storm. At Monday’s meeting, the Fayetteville City Council voted 8-1 to request emergency federal funding to clean up the debris from the sinkhole and burst culvert on Siple Avenue, as well as reinforce the eroded river bank and remove the sediment clogging the watershed. Mayor Mitch Colvin was absent from Monday’s meeting and so did not vote. Council Member Lynne Greene cast the opposing vote.
City stormwater manager Byron Reeves informed the council Monday that there are no plans to repair Siple Avenue, which is owned by the Rayconda Homeowners Association, but the grant would allow the city to fix the immediate safety challenges posed by the sinkhole.
“This work is needed to safeguard lives and property from an imminent hazard of stream blockages due to storm debris and further erosion of the roadway embankment,” Reeves wrote in a letter to USDA to request the assistance.
A complicated history
In 2016, Hurricane Matthew, the Upper Rayconda Dam breached, washing away Siple Avenue, which was then the only road in or out of the Rayconda subdivision. Residents were stranded there for days. With the current sinkhole in Siple Avenue caused by Tropical Storm Debby, residents are again left with only one way into the neighborhood.
Back in October 2016, the city had installed a culvert in place of the breached dam and repaired Siple Avenue, which was transferred in 2015 to the homeowners’ association. In 2015, the city also decided to build Pinewood Terrace, recognizing a second access point was needed, and the street was completed by 2018.
“Although the City had no right of way, due to Siple Avenue being the only way in and out for the subdivision, as an emergency measure the City moved forward with installing a culvert and repairing the street in the interest of providing access to the subdivision for emergency vehicles,” a 2021 city staff report states. “At the time of this emergency repair, the new Pinewood Terrace connection to Raeford Road had not been constructed.”
The culvert the city had installed was also damaged by Hurricane Florence in 2018. The Upper Rayconda Dam was officially declared “breached” by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality in 2020 — meaning it’s no longer considered a dam, but a road embankment that cannot hold back water. In 2020, the city secured further funding for the same federal grant it is now requesting to do similar repairs. But, according to city documents recalling the chain of events, the HOA at the time declined that fix, refusing to give the city the necessary easements to access the private property for repairs.
Securing funding for necessary repairs may be difficult. A potential grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture would only cover 75% of the project, Reeves said at Monday’s council meeting, requiring the city to secure additional funding to bridge the gap. It’s unclear if the HOA will cover the remaining 25%, Reeves said, or if the city will need to pursue state grant funds for the additional expense.
‘A can of worms’
The decision adds to the ongoing debate over who should take responsibility to fix Fayetteville’s infrastructure affected by flooding and watersheds that may pose a risk to public safety, but are located in private property. Over the last week, the council spent several hours in closed session with the city attorney considering the emergency assistance request before publicly discussing it Monday. A topic that arose in those discussions, council members said, is the legal battle between the City of Fayetteville and the Rayconda Homeowners Association.
The Rayconda HOA is one of four HOAs that sued the city in 2018 for damages caused by Hurricane Matthew in 2019. The residents, whose private lakes and dams were damaged or destroyed by the storm, argue that the city is responsible for the fixing damage because it used their lakes for stormwater control. The case was dismissed twice, but the N.C. Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s decision on Oct. 1, allowing the HOAs to proceed in their lawsuit against the city.
Greene, who opposed seeking the grant funding, told CityView she was worried approving the request would put the city in a “precarious spot” amid the ongoing litigation between the city and the Rayconda HOA. Greene also expressed concern that the council’s assistance to the neighborhood could set precedent opening the door to similar requests from other neighborhoods with failing private stormwater infrastructure.
“I just felt like if we gave it to them, if we went after it in one neighborhood, what’s to prevent the other four neighborhoods from coming and asking us to do something?” Greene said. “I just felt like it kind of opened up a can of worms that we really don’t need to be part of.”
Greene said she is not opposed to providing assistance to communities affected by flooding, but stressed the need to consider unforeseen circumstances that may arise from the city stepping in to help.
“There’s a balance somewhere, and I’m not sure where it is,” she told CityView. “I still don’t know where it is. But, you know, sometimes you just have to vote your conviction, and that was where I was at in my head.”
Woody Webb, the attorney for Rayconda and the other HOAs suing the city, argued that the city using stormwater funds to fix the damaged lakes and dams would ultimately be “beneficial for all of the citizens” in Cumberland County.
“At this point in time, I think with everything going on up in the mountains and the importance of limiting potential flooding to areas susceptible to flooding is now more crucial than ever,” Wood wrote in an email to CityView. “I would think this would be the right time for the City and the Plaintiffs to come together and repair the lakes/dams as soon as possible and as efficiently as possible in order to reduce the possibility of severe or catastrophic flooding in the future.”
Contact Evey Weisblat at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608. This story was made possible by donations from readers like you to CityView News Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.
I believe that this another example of poor city planning and leadership – Not only have they opened the door to other HOA’s to now come to the city council to ask for help and will reference Rayconda HOA, but it will now cost the city to pay for their issues which will ultimately affect my taxes. Seems like we have one CouncilPerson who thinks.
So much for annexation…. But the city wants Rayconda’s other neighborhoods tax money.
Well I
Must say it was the city runoff of water into the culvert that destroyed the
Embankment and
Road. Where is the city responsibility for creating an inadequate infrastructure destroying tax
Paying citizens property ! There is no hesitation to collect and raise taxes . This is no can of worms. It is the city
Responsibility in my opinion to do the
Right thing and fix this. The lake has been affected by the storm which demonstrated the inadequate management of runoff on highway 401 and land. The city gleefully
Annexed the area
Of Rayconda and others for the
Good of the
County, city and citizens. I
Must in the same note commend the city government for working to secure emergency funds but it may fall very short of the need for the second exit road.