County approved old agreement with adjacent commercial property without our knowledge

Our SFH development has a commercial property adjacent to our entrance & the County approved this property connecting to our storm water drainage but their approval was based on a 20 year old agreement when the developer still owned it. Many changes (including ownership) were done to the commercial property that directly affects the amount of rainwater entering our system so we believe this Agreement should have been voided or expired.

We have attempted to create an Agreement between us (HOA) & the commercial property owner to share the costs we incur for storm water pond maintenance & Liability insurance however, the commercial property owner is refusing since the County approved everything.

The County has admitted there should have been a written agreement (even provided a sample) and we have a detailed paper trail so we wanted to file with the Courts in attempt to force an agreement.

Every local attorney we've spoken to has declined to help primarily due to their concerns with alienating their relationship with the County so we need to know if we (hoa Officers) can file a motion without legal representation. We are a small (<100 homes) community so we do not have an attorney.

Any suggestions or advice will be greatly appreciated.

ElleN, thank you for your reply & we have recently reached out to a couple attorneys in a different County so hopefully we're get somewhere. Probably start with a demand letter to avoid the court system if possible.

We have also considered Small Claims, however, we need to have an agreement for sharing the costs going forward & not just a 1 time reimbursement.