Daniel Carrazana remembers going to workshops about drainage issues in Lantana.
“Yeah, I had an island. The whole street was covered, and the drains were not draining water like they were supposed to,” he said. “We couldn’t drive our car through the water. So we were really stuck here at our house and had to rely on our neighbors, who had pickup trucks, to go get food for us.”
He was one of the 300 homeowners who saw flooding during rainstorms in 2020. WPTV covered the flooding for multiple days, including people protesting to council members. More than three years later, people in the Sea Pines neighborhood were still affected.
Carrazana credits organizing people to attend council meetings for the changes, which he and his neighbors said have stopped the flooding.
“If we can go down to these meetings and the neighbors can express the things going on in the neighborhood, it brings the attention to the right people,” Carrazana said. “It’s very important.”
On Monday night, the Lantana Town Council listened to a presentation from Chen Moore Associates (CMA) about creating a stormwater system due to development. Town documents show their services cost about $120,000.
Eddie Crockett, who is the director of public services for the Town of Lantana, says they are considering a potential fee on taxes for residents to help with flooding. He said the money could go toward upgrading systems, pipes, drainage, and maintenance.
“The vision is this would be a fee that would help us with the stormwater system and the capital improvement projects that are associated with that,” Crockett said.