Ivory Homes denies fault for flooded Draper home

DRAPER — Floods in a Draper resident's home and yard are not the fault of a new subdivision sitting just uphill, Ivory Homes officials say.

Although resident Brad Fellows filed a lawsuit in 3rd District Court several weeks ago charging Ivory with flooding his home with runoff, Steve Herman of Ivory Homes said the Fellows home is situated in a historic basin for Bear Canyon Creek.

"If we had done something wrong, we'd stand up and do what's right," Herman said. "We're being crucified and portrayed as callous. We haven't done anything wrong."

City maps of the property show the natural route of the creek ravine running directly through a golf course above the Fellows home and emptying into a 40-foot-wide easement on the Fellows property. A pipe also empties into that ravine from the neighboring subdivision.

"There's nowhere else for the water to go except the Fellows home," Herman said. "We have done everything the city of Draper has asked us to do."

City Manager Eric Keck also noted city records show the easement should have been engineered to handle a 100-year flood. None of the storms in the past year have been anywhere near that severe, Herman noted.

"There's a drainage easement there for a purpose," Keck said. "I don't believe there's anything we can do engineering-wise to stop that water from coming down."

But Fellows said there was no flooding at his million-dollar home before the Ivory homes subdivision — Valle di Villa — began construction last year. Although Fellows has only owned the home for a little over a year, he said neighbors also support the fact that there was no problem with runoff before the Ivory developments.

"There's never been a drop of water before they got on the scene; now there's millions of gallons of water every time it rains," Fellow said.

Since the development broke ground, Fellows said his property has flooded more than 11 times. When sandbags failed to contain the water, Fellows paid about $60,000 to put up a berm to block the water flowing down from the golf course.

Even with a water pump on loan from the city, Fellows said the recent wet weather has been too much, and his yard is repeatedly transformed into a lake.

Although there may not have been any recent floods because of the drought, Herman said the route of water has been clearly marked for decades. The previous property owner failed to meet the obligation to protect the easement, he said.

The previous owner even built a shed in the easement and landscaped the area so that water had nowhere to go but down into the basement, Herman said.

"Clearly it has happened before because otherwise it wouldn't be called the Bear Creek," he said.

Keck said the city is working on putting in a pipe to help some of the ravine runoff circumvent the Fellows home. The pipe will run the city about $50,000.

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