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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Trees that are in danger of falling on homes line a creek at the corner of Shallowford Drive and Shallowford Circle in Vestavia Hills on Jan. 5.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Danny Barrett, a resident at Shallowford Town Homes in Vestavia Hills, points to a marker that indicates where the right of way owned by the city of Vestavia Hills stops as he talks about the trees that line a creek that are in danger of falling on homes Jan. 5.
In recent years, the community at the Shallowford Circle neighborhood in Vestavia Hills has been struggling with the impacts of flooding from Little Shades Creek, which runs parallel to Shallowford Circle. Excessive stormwater has damaged the neighborhood’s homes and eroded the surrounding land.
But with the creek being located on private land and the identity of its owner unknown, city leaders have said they are unable to alleviate all of the problems.
Danny Barrett has been a resident of Shallowford Circle for 13 years. He said that stormwater rising from the creek accumulates to the point that the creek’s 18-inch drainage pipes cannot keep up.
“It backs up because down on Rocky Ridge Road, there is a wall there and big round pipes that go under Rocky Ridge Road that will not handle the flow of the water,” Barrett said. “So, the water hits it, backs up, floods the park, floods the neighborhood, floods the streets, backs up inside of cars and inside of houses.”
Although flooding has affected the Shallowford community for the past 15 years, Barrett notes that it has gotten significantly worse since 2021.
The major storm that hit Vestavia on Oct. 6, 2021, commonly referred to as “the rain of the century,” hit Shallowford Circle particularly hard, damaging several homes. About 6 inches of water seeped into Barrett’s home, causing an estimated $61,000 worth of property damage. Although Barrett was able to afford flood insurance, other residents were not as lucky.
Further complicating residents’ efforts to cover the storm’s costs is that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has not designated Shallowford Circle as a flood zone.
Zhaleh McCullers is the former director of the Stormwater Management Division in Jefferson County. She noted that multiple factors go into a drainage system’s ability to contain stormwater. One such factor is that the architects who built the drainage system cannot fully account for years of storms and changing climate.
“We cannot design pipes big enough to plan for a hundred years of storms, especially in a subdivision,” McCullers said. “Because the economy of it is impractical.”
Additionally, the construction of roads and other impervious surfaces surrounding the drainage system leaves less room for the stormwater to be absorbed. All of this in addition to other factors such as littering can lead to drainage pipes becoming more easily overwhelmed.
“What at one time was [the] right design, it may not be today,” McCullers said.
Nancy Foreman has been living in Shallowford Circle for longer than Barrett has. She worries that the sheer ferocity of the stormwater racing down the creek can pose a significant environmental and safety risk.
“I have seen huge trees go down this creek. I have seen lawn furniture, trash cans, and they go down like Dixie cups,” Foreman said. “Because this water is raging so fast, it’s horrifying.”
Foreman said much of the bank bordering the creek has been washed away by this rushing stormwater over the past 15 years. This rapid land erosion has exposed the roots of multiple trees surrounding the neighborhood, leaving them in danger of toppling over. So far, two trees have already fallen. One tree fell onto a resident’s truck, while the other damaged the front of a house.
“It’s not a matter of … if they fall, it’s a matter of when they fall,” Barrett said. “And right now, every one of them are tall enough to come over across Shallowford Circle and go into a house, a car, or God forbid, a person.”
Throughout much of the past year, Barrett has reached out to multiple city officials in Vestavia in the hopes that they address the issue. Both he and Foreman were aiming to have the city come up with a solution before a major accident occurs.
“That’s what I’m afraid of, is they’re not going to do anything until somebody gets hurt,” Foreman said.
However, the city has repeatedly stated that its ability to do so is limited, as they do not own the creek.
On Nov. 3, 2022, City Attorney Patrick Boone, Director of Public Services Brian Davis and multiple Shallowford residents held a meeting at Vestavia Hills City Hall. There, Boone emphasized that Alabama law, specifically Section 94 of the state constitution, prohibits the city from spending public or state funds to maintain private property, such as the creek.
“We can’t spend public dollars on private property,” Boone said. “We go to jail for that.”
Additionally, the Alabama Supreme Court decided in two separate cases that cities are not liable for errors made when inspecting drainage systems.
“We want cities to have a general set of rules to go by,” Boone said. “And the purpose of the rules [is] not for the city to guarantee that all the nails are driven straight.”
Currently, the city of Vestavia owns Shallowford Circle, the bridge connecting to Shallowford Circle and the right of way. The creek, on the other hand, is privately owned, city leaders said, which means the city cannot devote resources to fixing the drainage systems or anything else on the property.
But no one, including the city, has been able to identify the owner of the creek.
Barrett and Foreman have both received conflicting information when looking into the matter. Before the November meeting, Barrett was informed that, as of 1962, the creek was owned by a company called the Birmingham Housing Corporation. However, he found that the company was dissolved in 1992, seemingly leaving the creek with no owner.
On the other hand, according to Foreman, city officials told her that the creek was owned by a nonprofit organization called the Cahaba River Society. As of today, the city maintains that its hands are tied because the owner of the creek remains unknown. Although Boone did speculate that the creek may be owned by the Shallowford neighborhood, he did not officially determine this.
Even if the city cannot switch out the drainage pipes, both Barrett and Foreman have suggested other fixes. Simply cutting down the tallest trees or placing rocks in front of them, they suggest, could make a big difference. Rocks could also have the added benefit of protecting the bank from further erosion.
However, Boone stated that the city is unable to implement even these solutions in privately owned property under Alabama law. The city has already had surveyors determine which trees are within the city-owned right of way, and only one of the trees with exposed roots lay within that boundary.
Vestavia Hills Mayor Ashley Curry, City Engineer Christopher Brady and Davis were asked to comment, but ultimately, the city emphasized that it had nothing more to add to what Boone had shared in the November meeting.
McCullers emphasized that although cities cannot operate within private property, nothing legally prevents the neighborhood’s homeowner association (HOA) from devoting resources toward projects within that property, regardless of who owns it. The HOA could allocate costs among the residents or even ask for advice from the city without directly involving it.
“They still have to work with the city to make sure what they’re designing is within their property and not creating problems downstream,” McCullers said.
Such efforts would not come cheap, as cutting down even one of the trees bordering the creek would, according to Barrett, cost between $2,000 to $3,000. However, McCullers noted that an HOA could start a fundraiser or request the help of a non-rofit organization to accrue the necessary funding.
A major obstacle remains: Shallowford Circle does not currently have an HOA. Barrett said although an HOA did exist for a time, the community eventually disbanded it due to a lack of interest.
Part of Barrett’s efforts to solve the flooding problem involve convincing homeowners that storms will continue to pose risks down the road, even if some seasons are drier than others.
For now, Barrett feels that he has done all he can to help the community with this issue. He is leaving it up to the homeowners to decide whether to take action.
“Now it is up to them to react, or not react,” Barrett said.
