Water-Related News

Will more roofs and residents mean more storm water runoff for one Bonita Springs community?

With construction of a 350-home housing development on a disused Bonita Springs golf course set to move forward, a neighboring subdivision that controls water runoff is concerned about what this will mean for the community’s drainage system and water quality despite plans showing improved storm water management and less flooding.

The development was approved by a city council vote earlier this month.

The east border of the San Carlos Estates Water Control District, between Old 41 Road and Paradise Road, looks onto the fairways of the abandoned Bonita Springs Golf Course and Country Club.

Since its inception in 1969, the now 800-home community has maintained the drainage system that controls its stormwater runoff, as well as from others outside the district. Because of population growth, the district is looking for aid.

“We’re headed for a trainwreck,” SCEWCD resident Jim Bradford said. “Everything that comes into these canal systems and all through these cross-streets with the ditches all dumps into [our] canal system.”

Bradford said the residents of the estates pay about $400 in yearly taxes to maintain the drainage system. The east border lies outside of the district and collects runoff from neighboring communities through four drainage pipes.

“The fault with this is that these [subdivisions] don’t participate, but they drain into our system,” he said.