Landscaping on an easement

One of our homeowners recently had to deal with water intrusion into her house in the aftermath of hurricane Dorian. She had appraisers from her insurance companies telling her that the majority of her problem was due to poor drainage allowing water to pool around the base of her house. I'm not sure I agree: our buildings are higher than the street and the lawn slopes down to it. During normal rain (normal rain in FL can be as much as an inch/hr) no pooling is evident. But anyways, she is asking us to do something with our landscaping to improve the drainage. She also has a quote for a French drain along the base of the affected wall. The problem is there is a 5 ft easement to allow utilities to connect to the units in the building.

A former HOA president (from another HOA - he recently purchased one of the units) said he has had problems in the past getting utility companies to agree to any work that would disturb the easement on the property where he served as president. He as much as said that the companies have an "ownership claim" on the easement.

We have shrubs and flowers planted in the easements, along with the mulch. There was digging required to do that work. I can't find anyone who remembers when that planting was done and whether the utility companies provided any obstacle.

Can you provide some input? Should I run this by our lawyer?

I have an add-on question if I may:

The landscaping the homeowner wants is on the common property, meaning that a special assessment would be required to perform it. However, the work would only benefit her unit which is the end unit of the building, so it seems appropriate to make her pay for it. Can someone help my out of this dilemma?

In our HOA, special assessments are approved by the Board, not the membership as a whole.

What about your stormwater system? If you have retention or detention ponds then you've also probably got an operational permit from your local Water Management District. Most WMDs put the entire burden of maintaining the drainage of the common property on the HOA. It's not right to shift that burden onto the homeowners. If the drainage problem exists on the common property and is negatively affecting a home NOT on the common property, then it's up to the HOA to solve the problem regardless of how many homeowners benefit. The existing situation is a detriment to her home. You want her to pay for the "benefit" of having the detriment removed?

Check your plat and your governing documents. Odds are that any chronic drainage problems are the responsibility of the association.

Each HOA is different. Our documents require a vote from the membership NOT board to have a special assessment. It's the job of the board to collect the vote and make the project happen.

I suggest you look into that. It's possible that your community was built without requiring a site plan for drainage, but as far as I know every development for decades in Florida has required a site drainage plan that must be approved by the county and whatever Water Management District you're in. Check if there's a Plat filed in your county's official records for the community. If there are any local or WMD requirements they're probably written right on the Plat somewhere.

Florida's first stormwater rule was adopted in 1981.

"A stormwater management system is defined in Sections 373.403(10) and 403.031(16), F.S., and in Section 2.0 of Handbook Volume I, as a system that is designed and constructed or implemented to control discharges which are necessitated by rainfall events, incorporating methods to collect, convey, store, absorb, inhibit, treat, use or reuse water to prevent or reduce flooding, overdrainage, environmental degradation, and water pollution or otherwise affect the quantity and quality of discharges from the system."