Neighbor around the corner from me has had diet added and seeded in their drainage ditch.
I'm new to the Neighborhood so aimed my phone toward them as I drove by(hence the pics being slightly blurry and majorly cropped)
It really confused me as at my old house I was glad for deep ditches a few times during crazy storms, where the sewer couldn't take water fast enough.
Is there a legitimate reason for doing this?
Will the municipality get them to undo this?
Are they liable for causing flooding on nearby properties if there's a major storm and their land has no ability to hold and Channel water?
My only logical thought was they hate mowing the hills, so removed them and everyone else get screwed.

by Huyton_Layne

35 Comments

  1. anderhole

    Look up your town name + stormwater. Call them.

  2. TubaManUnhinged

    Work like this requires permitting. Regardless of anything else, if they didn’t pull a permit they are in big trouble. All that being said, hydraulicly speaking, filling the ditch isn’t a big deal as long as they placed an appropriately sized culvert at the bottom first

  3. CantaloupeCamper

    #🤦‍♂️

    Maybe they put a big pipe under all that?  🤞

    I’d reach out to whoever is in charge of storm water ( city or county) and let them know.

  4. MisterGregory

    Did you take this picture with a Gameboy?

  5. Ask them if they can help you get permitted too…. let’s see if they’ve done the right thing.

  6. That is most likely not “his” drainage ditch. The hydrant is in the right of way. Where the driveway changes color. is probably close to the edge of the neighbor’s lot.

    Neighbor is doing work in the public right of way. Not cool.

  7. Just ask them what’s up when you introduce yourself as new. Play dumb and say iS thAt SomEThinG I nEeD Too?

  8. ldssggrdssgds

    Looks like they performed illegal fill work with a municipal right of way (the hydrant is usually a good indicator of the right of way limit). Call you local Municipality and report them.

  9. letsfastescape

    Based on the quality of the photos I’d guess this must’ve been about thirty years ago so I wouldn’t worry too much about.

  10. Lordnoallah

    Unless it’s a private road or they have approval from the city/DOT they better get their shovel out. Most states maintain 30′ on either side of center line or back of ditch to back of ditch.

  11. polkadothead

    Screenshot of a captcha “check images with a fire hydrant”

  12. GilletteEd

    Please fill us in later after the city comes out, we want to know what happens!

  13. Teamskiawa

    Cool, I’m excited to see the pics next week of the excavator digging it back out.

  14. Allemaengel

    I work for a municipal public works department and that’s a HUGE no-no.

    Typically in newer developments there’s a stormwater facilities page in the developer’s final approved plans book recorded at the county courthouse showing every swale, pipe, drain, and basin. These are typically in the road ROW or sometimes have their own stormwater easement that allows city employees like me to enter private property to inspect or do maintenance.

    This absolutely needs to be reported to the municipality’s Public Works Director and/or Code Enforcement Officer ASAP. Someone in your community could get a lot of misdirected water that’ll do damage in the next huge storm.

  15. Horsefly762

    Every city has it’s own rules about this stuff. I would reach out to the city. This seems pretty wild, though and I can’t imagine it being legal.

  16. svenelven

    TBH, if they didn’t install a pipe then they will be the ones flooded while the water finds its way to that storm drain.

  17. For what it is worth, our county was recently doing roadwork replacing culverts and aprons on driveways. They offered to fill in ditches instead of replacing the culverts in locations where the amount of water running off the road and the slope of the land allowed for it. I guess if you are at the top of a hill and your yard slopes back from the road the volume is so low that the ditch isn’t required.

    I only offer this as a counterpoint to the comments saying this is automatically stupid. It still could be, but there are scenarios where the ditch is not needed due to the slope and location.

    When my road gets resurfaced and my culvert replaced this fall, I’m hoping I’ll get the chance but seeing how much water ends up in my ditch even at the top of a hill, I expect I won’t get the choice. I just don’t want to mow it.

  18. That is called a swale. The swale in this case is probably on the towns property as most developments your property line is not the edge of the driveway but a set amount of setback from the side or center of the street. I would call the town and let them handle it. Possible town has not been down your street in a while. This will cause major drainage issues.
    Let them be the bad guy.

  19. Ok-Arm5993

    I would call the city as soon as possible because that’s illegal

  20. Tall_Relief_9914

    Try make the picture more blurry, I can still see a bit of detail

  21. SlanginNbangin7

    Did they re paint their house, and have a completely different house built next door? 🤔

  22. ScrutinySausage

    Not sure what the rules are in your country but where I live that drainage ditch would be considered council land. 

    Can you report to the city/town council?

  23. RelaxedWombat

    Notify highways/zoning/water council/ whomever.

  24. mo_Doubt5805

    Watershed authority is going to be really unhappy about that.

  25. Am I missing something? Is this the same location? The house in the background looks different. The bushes in the background look different. Where is the fire hydrant? A mailbox suddenly appears.

  26. cellxor10

    Where are these two pictures taken in relation to each other? They look like completely different houses and settings, given the neighbors houses and trees are different and the fire hydrant and mailbox in different pics.

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