NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — As some homeowners in Metro Nashville deal with flooding for the first time, there is concern new construction is to blame.
According to city code, developers should not be steering water toward existing structures, but sophisticated systems have not always been required.
Any construction that will create more than 800 square feet of new, impervious area should include a stormwater management system, according to the city's stormwater management manual.
"If we didn't have this built, all this water would be shedding on their property and flooding them out," said Troy Davis of Regent Homes.
At Carothers Farms near the Davidson-Williamson County line, there are layered rain gardens throughout the community that collect, filter, drain and trickle out stormwater. Developers planned how rainwater would flow around the homes in the neighborhood before construction started.
Carothers Farms is a Regent Homes property. Regent Homes developer Dave McGowan said the options builders have now are more advanced than the systems relied on in the past.
"We're underneath a population boom," said Dave McGowan. "So basically it has evolved over the last 20 years for sure."
Instead of ditches and culverts in older parts of town, new neighborhoods likely have Bioretention areas to give water a place to flow.
"Go to different parts of town, they have no control of water, and that's why it backs up and that's why it backs up into the yard because there is no detention ponds," McGowan said.
In some areas of town, there may be an opportunity to retrofit properties and add in a rain garden, for example, but the process can be expensive.
