Deep concerns: Lagoon conditions worry Sun City residents

Since Maryann and John Ott moved into their Sun City Hilton Head home in 2006, the lagoon in their backyard has been a source of frustration.

The Otts paid an extra $32,000 on their house so they could get a view of the marsh and the adjoining lagoon in their Aster Fields neighborhood. They expected the lagoon to be scenic, clear and able to swallow a heavy rain.

But things didn't turn out as they expected. They described the lagoon in a letter to Beaufort County officials as a "shallow, stagnant mud hole." And after an early October storm, John Ott said he became concerned when the lagoon rose near his back porch.

"We didn't know how far it was going to rise," he said. "For all I knew it was going to continue" into the house.

Dissatisfied after complaining to Sun City's developer, Pulte Homes, about the problem, the Otts banded together with other Sun City residents frustrated by neighborhood lagoons.

The group was surprised, while poring over Beaufort County permits, to find that three lagoons in their neighborhood were not on the maps.

After the discovery, more than 50 residents, led by retired landscape architect Rick McCollough, contacted county officials and the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

County zoning director Hillary Austin said the lagoons were small enough they complied with county ordinances, even if they weren't shown on the original maps. But DHEC, which has a different set of regulations for lagoons, is looking at its own maps to determine if the lagoons should be there.

Meanwhile, county officials agreed Wednesday to mediate the dispute. Austin and county engineer Bob Klink said they would discuss the residents' requests with Pulte at a future meeting. The residents want Pulte to dredge and deepen the lagoons, put in plants and show the lagoons drain stormwater and filter sediment properly.

A Pulte engineer defended the lagoons, saying calculations showed they provide effective drainage.

McCollough, who represented the neighbors, said residents fear if the lagoons overflow into their homes, their insurers will say, "Oh, there were problems with how they constructed those. We're not going to pay for that."

The county mediated a similar Sun City lagoon dispute in July between Pulte and homeowners in the Murray Hill neighborhood.