The city of Huntsville has ordered construction of a subdivision on Monte Sano Mountain to stop until required drainage infrastructure is in place.

The action came after stormwater runoff from the Summit at Monte Sano development flooded the adjacent Heritage at Monte Sano subdivision on Gaslight Way on the mountain this past weekend.

“The city of Huntsville’s engineering staff met this morning and made a site visit to the development,” said City Director of Urban and Economic Development Shane Davis. “Upon review of the site, the engineering department issued a limited stop work order on the project.”

The “limited” stop work order directs the contractor to only work on completing the ongoing stormwater drainage construction portions of the development prior to advancing additional activities, Davis said in a statement to AL.com.

“The city wants us to focus on a berm that was to be installed at the very end of the project,” said See Forever Managing Partner Ben Jackson. “They now want that installed now. We will be working on the berm.”

Davis said the engineering staff was able to download storm data for the area (rain gauge and intensity data) from the weekend’s rains and said the storm exceeded a 100 – year storm event and definitely contributed to the amount of runoff.

Jackson maintains work on the development is not to blame for the flooding, but residents in the neighborhood dispute the claim.

In his complaint with the city, Gaslight Way resident Mark Judge said storm runoff from the Summit at Monte Sano “is causing erosion damage to existing property of owners in the Heritage of Monte Sano.”

He said the runoff continues to cause damage and cleanup issues even though countermeasures have been put into place.

“With the storm drainage infrastructure compete on the southern end of the development, I do not see this getting better, actually worse, once the construction of houses start,” Judge said.

He said erosion from the storm runoff is an issue every time it rains and not just from a 100-year event.

Michael Stephenson posted a video on YouTube of the flooding:

“The Summit development in Huntsville is recklessly and carelessly eroding Monte Sano mountain, including Oak Park trail on land trust property, and onto my home property on Oakwood Ave,” he said in his description. “This video starts at the bottom on Oakwood and walks all the way to the source of the red clay river … the ungoverned water cannons blasting down the mountain from the Summit development. It ends back on Oakwood.”

But Jackson said the runoff “did not just come off of our property.”

“It came from above as well, ran through our drainage system, into these lower neighborhoods that were not required to have these advanced draining systems in place,” he said.

Nonetheless, Davis said, “the developer/contractor must complete all drainage work and complete construction (currently ongoing) of the development retention ponds and drainage swales.”

See story: Monte Sano blasting raises concerns about damage to homes, mountain – al.com