A fresh sinkhole has opened up in the Cameron Villas, putting residents on edge and prompting a massive emergency repair bill.
The latest sinkhole made its debut Thursday on Victoria Lane in the villa community in the Village of Calumet Grove. The ground opened up just as crews were using heavy equipment to lay down new pipe at the site of another sinkhole that appeared on May 24 at the intersection of Victoria Lane and Parlange Terrace.
“This is the third sinkhole/ground collapse in the past year in Cameron Villas,” resident Lisa Buchko said. “Our neighborhood is a mess and the Developer needs to be held accountable.”
Residents of the Cameron Villas are understandably terrified, worrying about their property values and the stability of the ground beneath their own homes. Two homes in the Cameron Villas have already been declared unlivable.
Many homeowners are looking suspiciously at the community’s aging infrastructure. Residents cannot help but “connect the dots” between the collapsed pipes in their neighborhood and the notorious sinkholes of 2018 that ravaged nearby McLawren Terrace. Eight years ago, people raised the exact same concerns regarding old, deteriorating pipes, and now Cameron Villas residents are sounding the alarm once again.
The ongoing crisis forced the Community Development District 4 Board of Supervisors to take drastic action on Friday. The board voted to spend $517,220 on emergency pipe repairs in the Cameron Villas.
To help fund the repairs, CDD 4 Board Chairman Cliff Wiener announced that the board made the painful decision to raise the maintenance assessment paid by residents by 25 percent.
“We are trying to be proactive,” Wiener said.
Due to statutory requirements and the timing of the budget process, CDD 4 was under a tight deadline to set the 25 percent increase. However, the board will still have time to lower that percentage before the final budget is approved in September if financial conditions allow.
This is not the first time residents have had to foot the bill for major ground collapses. In 2018, CDD 4 raised the maintenance assessment by 20 percent to cover the fallout from the McLawren Terrace sinkholes.