LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — If you live in Lehigh Acres, work here or just drive through it, you see plenty of empty lots where it looks like construction will start.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection looked into properties potentially built on wetlands without the correct permits and found some builders don't have the right permits.
Find the previous report here.
"It's gotten to the point where everybody's scared to death," Lehigh resident Janie McCarty said.
When it rains, it pours, and in parts of Lehigh, it also floods including where McCarty lives.
Watch Lehigh Acres Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades report below:
Storm water has no where to go, so it stands in yards and floods streets.
Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District director Dave Lindsay told Ella Rhoades about his concern with people building on wetlands last month.
"What's happening in Lehigh is now we've got additional flooding issues because of the loss of wetlands," Lindsay said.
Rhoades reached out to FDEP to see if properties on Beck and Benton Street, from her previous report, got the correct permits to build on wetlands.
"I did a quick search of DEP's permitting database, and I did not find any active or expired environmental resource permits."
Thursday afternoon, Rhoades saw a construction crew at work on Beck Street - one of the locations FDEP said did not have a permit. FDEP didn't say if they spoke with the property owners.
If a builder obtains the correct permit to build on wetlands from FDEP, they make sure other wetlands are preserved in a mitigation bank.
Find more information here on FDEP permits here.
LAMSID said the problem is there's no mitigation bank in Lehigh Acres, and the benefits go to a different area.
Lindsay said, "Continuous amount of impact as time goes on where wetlands are disappearing and rooftops and driveways are appearing."
Without wetlands providing a place for the water, neighbors like McCarty and Pedro Dulima feel the effects often.
"When flooding happens, we can't take our cars out. Therefore, we can't go can't do anything, so we needed help," Dulima said.
FDEP said a lot near McCarty's home doesn't have any wetland permits on record.
"Apparently, they're not doing it the proper way, and the results is going to be devastating," McCarty said.
As a longtime Lehigh resident, McCarty knows how the story goes.
She said, "We are the ones who are going to pay the price."
In the meantime, she and her neighbors hope to see FDEP out in Lehigh enforcing permits.
LAMSID said they'll look into creating a wetland mitigation bank in Lehigh, but it's a lengthy process.
FDEP encourages people to report environmental concerns hereand the State Watch Office (1-800-320-0519).
