In April 2009, the Times first heard from Hopewell's Landing low-impact development (LID) homeowners in Gainesville who said they bought something that turned out to be different than what they were sold in the early to mid 2000s.

Deep ditches for water runoff in front of homes, plans for some sidewalks scrapped, an unopened pool being paid for by homeowners, backyards physically cut in half so water created streams during rain storms; some folks were just genuinely not happy with several aspects of their community.

Fast forward to 2010 and some things have changed and others have not.

More homes are up on the west side of the community. A walk along Yalta Way revealed that the new drainage ditches are considerably shallower than in older places in Hopewell's Landing.

The pool opened last summer and even stayed opened an extra couple weeks before closing in the fall.

Behind the scenes, attorneys representing the county and developer D.R. Horton exchanged letters with lawyers hired by Kenneth Padgett, one of the homeowners who spoke on the record in 2009 about issues facing the community.

On August 10, attorneys Mark Moorestein and Lella Pape sent a letter on behalf of Padgett to Supervisor Wally Covington (R-Brentsville), Prince William Watershed Management branch chief Mark Aveni and D.R. Horton Vice President Mark Giganti "with regard to his claims and issues concerning the development, design and implementation" of the LID community.

The letter charged that D.R. Horton should abide by "the County's requirement" to "install sidewalks in the community." The builder withdrew the plan for sidewalks in January 2009 after disagreements with community members about whether they wanted a revised sidewalk plan offered to them. Residents rejected the plan, stating the walk was too far into their properties, and it was scrapped.

Padgett's attorneys argued that there was not "enough consideration of the impact on the safety, health and welfare of the residents of the community" in removing the proposed sidewalks.

Instead of permeable sidewalks on one side of the road that could fit within the concept and design of LID, D.R. Horton instead widened roads to make them more pedestrian friendly. Orange spray paint making 90 degree angles around cracks in the pavement marked the side of at least one street in the community last month.

The Times profiled an instance last year of a child fell who fell off his bicycle to avoid an oncoming car and broke his arm, which his father said was the result of the ditch being too deep and there being no sidewalk alternative in that area.

Letters returned by the assistant county attorney on August 28 and a private attorney for the developer on September 28 dispute the issues raised by Padgett. The county letter counter-charges that residents simply have not voiced their concerns to the appropriate county staff regarding the grading of the ditches.

"The County strongly disputes the assertion that there are any remaining issues with flooding or erosion, and that there is an effect on home or property values in the community," states the letter from assistant county attorney Curt Spear.

On the same topic, D.R. Horton attorney Jon Mains wrote to Padgett's attorneys that "the drainage channels were appropriately located and constructed."

There is evidence of flooding and erosion on Chimbote Court. For example, a video hosted on YouTube by homeowner Dushyant Pandya, dated June 2, shows a brown stream surging through his and his neighbor's backyard, essentially dividing the back of their property. This is common during rain storms along Chimbote Court, he said last spring.

As he narrates the video, Pandya can be heard saying, "The amount of water flowing through my backyard, dumped from three different streets. ... My whole house is surrounded by water."

In fact, even on dry days, grass appears to be a much darker shade of green in the path of the stream in his back yard. It grows higher than the grass along the back hill. The ground under that grass tends to be squishier than the surrounding ground.

As for the property value, Padgett's wife Katey said that, in her opinion as a professional Realtor, "It does affect the property value because their land does hold water. That's a potential turn off for a buyer."

She added, "I don't know too many people who would be on the 'pro' side here. You don't have to be a genius to say, 'There's a giant V in my backyard that holds water there.'"

According to a January 28, 2010 "memorandum" from Sequoia Management Company, which is in charge of the Hopewell's Landing homeowner's association (HOA), the county is responsible for ensuring "proper function" of rain gardens. The memorandum defines "function" as "the basins do not have standing water 48 hours after a rain event ends."

While some rain gardens work as designed, others do not. The malfunctioning ones hold water for longer than 48 hours, as evidenced by photographs provided by Kenneth Padgett. The August 28 letter from the county mentions that "27 rain gardens were removed" from Hopewell's Landing though county staff "indicated that both the original design with rain gardens and the revised design without them meet the applicable stormwater management criteria."

Two of the rain gardens removed along Hopewell's Landing drive were replaced by a block-long ditch that leads rain water out of the LID community to the north and through a series of drainage pipes which ultimately empty out into nearby woods away from the LID area. During a tour last month, ducks flew out of standing water in one area and into a connecting swamp in the middle of the woods.

"With respect to Mr. Padgett's assertion that the impact of this removal (of rain gardens) has been flooding and erosion in various areas of the community, an inspection of the property would show that any such contentions is unfounded and simply not true," wrote Mains in the September 28 letter. "Given the overall grade of the community, it is inconceivable that any such damage has occurred or can occur."

The letter from Mains closes by stating Padgett is "incorrect" about D.R. Horton "trying to get off the bond for the L.I.D. section of Hopewell's Landing." The bond in question deals with how long D.R. Horton legally maintains portions of the community.

"Mr. Padgett needs to understand that if he precludes D.R. Horton from performing its obligations to the County or if he wrongfully interferes with D.R. Horton's property interests, D.R. Horton will take the appropriate action to secure the performance of it obligations and to protect its property," wrote Mains in the paragraphs before his signature.

Katey Padgett summarized her and her husband's situation as she sat her dining room table the afternoon of April 24, her husband retrieving documents and her dog and cat near by.

"We want it to be what we were sold on," she said of Hopewell's Landing. "We were sold on an idea that we didn't get."