Villagers spoke out at a public hearing on Monday about their neighbor’s over-the-top yard.
The home at 4540 Pearlman Way in the Village of DeLuna was the subject of a public hearing before a special hearing officer at the District Office at Brownwood. The home is owned by Steven Walls and Debbie Gammon, who purchased the property in 2020 for $389,400.
Neighbors said the couple brought in six dump truck of dirt to raise up the property. While they submitted a plan to the Architectural Review Committee, the couple greatly deviated from that plan, by installing a putting green and a fountain that are far larger than what was indicated in the plan. There is also an unauthorized buried 500-gallon tank with elaborate underground piping. In addition, there are big bountiful plants right up to the rear wall and within inches of their neighbors’ properties. All of this has prompted flooding on their neighbors’ properties, suspicious chemicals draining into the nearby pond and a lot of hard feelings.
And more and more plantings are being added.
“It just grows and grows and grows,” neighbor John Diferdinando testified at the hearing. “This entire project has gone completely awry.”
He said he is concerned that with hurricane season nearing its peak, the unruly materials in his neighbor’s yard and the documented flooding problems could be downright dangerous.
“So there is an urgency to get this resolved,” Diferdinando said.
Neighbor Leslie Brimer echoed Diferdinando’s testimony.
“This has been a frustration for quite some time for us,” Brimer said. “They don’t maintain the property. They don’t mow the property. There is just constant planting that is going on.”
Her husband called the property a, “Train wreck.”
Special Master Terry Neal was sympathetic to the neighbor’s pleas for help. The property owners did not attend the public hearing. However, Gammon authored an Opinion piece in Villages-News.com n June, complaining, “Our neighbors have been using Community Standards to make our lives miserable.”
Community Standards had recommended giving the property owners 45 days to come into compliance.
However, Neal opted to accelerate the process and ordered the homeowners to bring the home into compliance within 10 days. There is little chance that the homeowners will meet that timeline, but it is hoped that the order of enforcement will get their attention and spur them into action as fines begin to pile up.