Garland Couple Battles City Over Erosion They Say Threatens Home – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Its become a routine for Cori Criswell to grab his tape measure and level to survey the edge of his house and yard in the wake of a storm just to see what might have changed.

Hesobserving the strip of land that separates his house and a creek below, whichhe worries is steadily receding towards his foundation.

I think its probably going to happen pretty soon under theright conditions, said Criswell.

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Its a problem he said started a few years after his fianc BobbiSnider bought the house on Edgebrook drive in 2006.

Snider had noticed city crews digging up the creeksembankment to locate an abandoned utility line.

The next time it rained, she said she realized all of thevines, bushes and trees that had been ripped away in the process were nowallowing the soil to wash away.

"It's a domino effect. You messed up this land, and now it's soft and every time it rains it goes downstream, said Bobbi Snider.

But accordingto the City of Garland, the responsibility rests with the homeowners.

They said in a statement, Our Engineers determined thatremoving the foliage was not the cause of damage or erosion to the citizensretaining wall.

Still, Snider said she saw crews out there three times attempting to stop the erosion with sandbags and netting in the months and years that immediately proceeded the removal of the foliage.

The city responded, The Citys work was done to keeperosion from causing damage to public property in particular, the cul-de-sac.

Even so the city had crews investigate the problem andestimate the cost of repairs, which they said would total more than $205,000.

The city does offer a 50/50 cost-sharing program to help homeowners with fixing erosion problems. But in Criswell and Sniders case, they said the cost to repair would be more than 50% of the propertys value.

So with time working against them, Criswell and Snider said there only options now are to pay or prepare for a legal fight.

"I would just like them to step up to the plate and acknowledge that they destroyed the homeostasis of that land and caused all of this and just fix it. You know, just fix it, said Snider.

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Garland Couple Battles City Over Erosion They Say Threatens Home - NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth