Hammonds Plains woman taking developer to court over flooding, property damage

Tammy Broussard watches her dog wade through a pool of water in her backyard where she once mowed grass, steps away from a fire pit she no longer uses.

Broussard said the creation of a new seven-unit housing development next door has led to flooding and other damage on her Hammonds Plains, N.S., property, so she's taking the developer to small claims court.

"We've lost a lot because of this development," Broussard said in an interview. "We have nobody, nobody to advocate for us."

The issues started last summer, she said, when trees and a thick stand of bushes along the side of her front lawn were removed, revealing a view of the back decks on the new condos at 85 Pockwock Road.

Over the next few months, Broussard regularly contacted the Halifax Regional Municipality about issues she saw: the missing bushes, a gravel driveway the developer built on her land, as well as decks and awnings that encroached on the property line.

She said city staff eventually told the developer to shorten the decks and awnings, which they did. But Broussard said she wasn't happy with overall communication from the municipality.

Broussard said staff told her the issue was a civil one between neighbours, and she could also contact police. She made a complaint to RCMP in June, but the Mounties told CBC News the matter was a civil land dispute so the investigation was closed.

The biggest issue was flooding. Broussard said the developer raised the grade of their property and filled in a longstanding storm-water trench that ran behind both properties, creating a dam. 

"We haven't been able to utilize our backyard for the better part of well, two summers," she said.

In April, Broussard said she had a meeting with two Halifax staff members and two of the development's contractors. They told her they planned to install a drainage system to handle water collecting along the property line between the buildings, and that she could choose what trees and shrubs would be replanted on her land to fix the damage.

Broussard said while the drainage system works well, it was placed under her property and she doesn't want the responsibility of maintaining it.

Just before historic flooding hit the province in July, she called the provincial Department of Environment and Climate Change to inspect her property.

The resulting report from environmental officer Anthony Heggelin said that on July 13, he saw water up over the fire pit area as well as debris like leaves and tree needles further up the lawn marking where previous flooding had reached.

Heggelin wrote that the waterway in the backyard was drainage, and the neighbouring property "appeared to have blocked/altered the drainage flow when they developed the property."'