LEAGUE CITY — Tracey Brooks said she didn’t think to question builders’ plans to put in a boat ramp a few spaces down from her newly built Magnolia Estates home.
“It’s why we chose this neighborhood,” she said. “They drove us down to the spot. We walked to the creek. We took pictures.”
But she, like homeowners around her who say they heard the same promises, never thought to get the plans in writing.
That oversight could mean there is little way of ensuring the ramp ever gets built, consumer advocates say.
Last week, in the spot where Brooks said she heard the salesman’s boat-ramp pitch, a sign went up announcing the space was available for a home site. The rear lot backs up to Clear Creek and is one of the few empty spots left in the subdivision.
The sign led residents to look for answers.
So far, they haven’t been easy to find.
The Daily News’ efforts to get explanations from D.R. Horton, the company that developed the neighborhood, were unsuccessful. The company spokeswoman didn’t return phone calls or e-mails for three days and messages left for other corporate officials weren’t returned.
Resident Renee Voirgeois said she asked D.R. Horton employees what went wrong and was told the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied the permit for the ramp.
But Corps spokeswoman Martie Cenkci said she didn’t have any record of D.R. Horton filing for a permit.
Although residents say they’re certain the company intended to build the ramp, documents filed at city hall don’t reflect that.
The rear lot was always platted as a home site on subdivision plans. Other neighborhood green spaces, such as a pond and gazebo, are marked on maps residents viewed when they bought their houses.
“The fact that so many people were told that, it’s not like it was just me that heard incorrectly or misunderstood,” Voirgeois said.
New homebuyers should always verify land use plans, Better Business Bureau-Houston spokeswoman Deana Turner said.
“You want to get anything they promise in writing,” she said. “When they’re telling consumers this, they may in all honesty be telling the truth. You can’t guarantee that deals aren’t going to fall through.”
In Magnolia Estates, where now more than 40 residents have signed a petition asking D.R. Horton to either build the promised boat ramp or sell the empty lot to the homeowners association, residents still hope for resolution.
That doesn’t always happen.
Four years ago, Victory Lakes residents became similarly enraged when they learned high-end offices and upscale eateries planned nearby would instead become a Wal-Mart Super Center. The homeowners’ lawsuit settled out of court, but the settlement they received just covered attorney’s fees.
Brooks has called the Texas Attorney General’s office, the Better Business Bureau and city hall. At first, it was in hopes of lobbying the company to go back to its initial plans. After she learned the site was always slotted for a house, she now wants to ask for more accountability for the company and its sales staff.
“I feel like they used that empty lot as a selling point while they could, sold most of the homes and then put it up for sale,” she said.
Voirgeois said although she’s not a boater, the selling point of the ramp was repeated in almost every meeting she had with the company.
“I was kind of indifferent do it, but they acted like it was one of the big selling points,” she said. “Every time I would come in, they’d update me on it. They said they’d have it put in before I moved in. They were pushing it more than I was asking about it. That’s how heavy they were selling it.”
Voirgeois may not miss the ramp, but resident Shanna Fernandisse bought a boat after moving into the neighborhood in anticipation of the creek access.
“I thought I would drive to the end of the block and plop the boat in,” she said. “I wanted to take my girl scouts out there. I had big plans for that creek front.”
