When it rains, the backyards of Andrew Choi and Dushyant Pandya are no longer just a nice grassy knolls with trees at the top of the hill and their houses at the bottom.

Instead, a brown stream inevitably flows right through the mid-section of their yards at Hopewell's Landing in Gainesville like a moat blocking some sort of miniature medieval fortress from the evil-doers at the top of the hill.

When Kenneth Padgett points out how the deep grading at some of the ditches, looking at it alone is not enough. He instead shows a picture of his wife Katey standing in one.

It comes up to her waist.

As the Padgetts walked down the street with neighbor Cris Browning and his young daughter, the four of them took up nearly half the road along Cartegena Drive. It's not because they enjoy frolicking on the pavement. Rather, the sidewalks they were promised would be built back in 2007 not only do not exist, but are not even planned to exist.

This is a common theme for the homeowners who moved into the LID section of Hopewell's Landing in 2007. What they bought is not is not what they got according to numerous documents and first-person accounts.

Calls placed to the developer D.R. Horton were not returned as of press time Monday, but four sets of homeowners each offered their own takes on what, exactly, has happened to their community over the last few years.

A low impact development is designed to be an environmentally-friendly alternative to standard residential construction. Communities are usually developed with curbs and gutters designed to capture rain water and deposit it underground.

In a LID, rain gardens and ditches capture water and use it above ground, mitigating the need for curbs and gutters. This was part of the deal Hopewell's Landing homeowners knew they were getting when they purchased their properties.

By October 2003, the county had secured a joint grant by the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation to build such a project.

Developer D.R. Horton signed on to build the Hopewell's Landing project along with the Engineering Groupe, Inc.

Letters authored by the chief of the county's Watershed Management Branch and sent to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation between 2003 and 2004 show LID plans included "narrower street widths, open ditch sections in lieu of curb and gutter, sidewalk restricted to only one side of the street, shorter and narrower driveway entrances, preservation of open space areas, etc."

One 2004 letter explained sidewalk options included "the possibility of utilizing porous pavers for the sidewalk, and allowing the sidewalk within the lots."

Through 2008, sidewalks were part of the plans.

"So this is what when we were sold houses in 2007, we were buying something that had sidewalks on one side of the street and a bunch of other things," said Browning.

In a letter signed by Thomas Blaser, director of the county's Department of Transportation, on Feb. 25, 2009, Padgett and other homeowners learned that as of Jan. 29, "the decision to provide 4 foot paved shoulders in lieu of the 4 foot concrete sidewalk was made by the Department of Transportation in consultation with other County Agencies and input from property owners and D.H. [sic] Horton. The location of the proposed sidewalk was located and staked. It was determined from this analysis that the proximity of the sidewalk to the houses due to the associated ditch was unacceptable."

According to Padgett, "You've got 4.5 to 5 years where the plan [was] to put sidewalks into the community before it was pulled. So, technically, it's even paid for if the builder were to leave."

In essence, when Padgett and Browning separately bought homes in 2007, they were both told there would eventually be sidewalks.

When the developer offered to build sidewalks within the easements on the homeowners' property, homeowners balked at the idea because it would be too far within their property.

Now there are no sidewalks and there are no plans to build any.

When Andrew Choi bought his house on Chimbote Court, he had a level backyard that would fill with water when it rained and flood his basement. So the developer's engineers came out to fix the problem... without his notice.

The digging in his backyard came inside any easement boundaries and, once it was finished, rain water ran like a stream across his backyard, dividing the property into two unequal halves.

"And I have kind of a problem because I cannot use my backyard anymore," said Choi, later adding, "I can't do anything back here!"

Dushyant Pandya, who lives at the other end of the street, complained that, like Choi, he had a level backyard when he bought the house but now has such a large slope that he cannot even mow both halves of his year.

"When it rains, it's like a flood back here," he said.

Browning added that county officials believe, "This is good" and that they are happy with it.

Having a water runoff stream running through someone's backyard would make the house a tougher sell on what is already an over-saturated housing market in the county.

But there are others issues too, such as homeowners having paid HOA fees for a pool that was supposed to be open two years ago but is still under construction.

"That's a frustration that you know, if somebody new was coming into the neighborhood, are they going to be likely to buy into a neighborhood where the developer doesn't fulfill his promises," said supervisor Wally Covington (R-Brentsville).

So what can be done about the problems ailing Hopewell's Landing? Homeowners said they would like permeable sidewalks placed over the ditches at the front of their properties.

The problem is cost.

"The developer doesn't seem to be willing to pay for anything at this point other than what he has to. [The] question at this point is, 'Who pays?'" said Covington.