Sun City Center Neighbors Were Ordered to Tear Out HOA-Approved Backyard Fences, and One Disabled Veteran Spent Nearly $8,000 on Hers

The letters that arrived at Cypress Mill homes in Sun City Center said the same thing: a fence on the property was blocking a drainage easement, and it had to be moved or removed, at the owner’s expense, later this month. For homeowners who had won their HOA’s approval before building, the notice from the neighborhood’s Community Development District came as a shock. One of them, Laura Burns-Sierra, a disabled veteran, spent nearly $8,000 on her fence, according to Tampa Bay 28’s investigative report published Nov. 4, 2026.

The dispute pits two layers of neighborhood governance against each other, and the homeowners say nobody told them the second layer existed.

What the Cypress Mill CDD Letters Told Homeowners

According to the Tampa Bay 28 report, the letters say a fence “prevents the district’s pond maintenance vendor from accessing the adjacent stormwater pond for necessary maintenance.” Burns-Sierra read from her own letter on camera, which states that it has come to the district’s attention that a fence on her property is obstructing the easement area.

Attorney Jonathan Ellis, who represents homeowners associations but is not involved in this dispute, told the station that adjoining 15-foot drainage easements run along each affected lot, from the road back to a stormwater pond. The letters say the fences must come down “later this month,” which means November 2026. The report does not give a specific deadline day.

Christopher Delgado, who rents the home next door to Burns-Sierra, said he learned in October that part of his backyard fence had to go. When a crew arrived to take it down, he turned them away.

Nearly $8,000 for a Fence the HOA Had Approved

Burns-Sierra told the station that her HOA approved her fence in 2021 and never mentioned that the CDD could require its removal. She said she paid nearly $8,000 for it, charging the cost to a Home Depot credit card and paying it off over two years. When the removal crew came to her yard, she denied them access and called police, saying they had no court order.

Her neighbor Victor Abreu chose a different path. He had his fence moved to clear the easement, and an invoice shows he paid a contractor $1,000, although he recalled $625 for the work of bringing the fence down. The move cost him 15.5 feet of yard, along with plants, bushes and part of his irrigation system. Abreu said the alternative was paying the CDD to do it. He knew the district existed, he said, but not its regulations, and he believes homeowners should have been told when they built.

Other neighbors have complied after receiving the letter, the report notes.

Why the HOA’s Yes Does Not Settle It

Ellis explained that the two bodies answer different questions. An HOA approves fences against its own guidelines for materials, size and color. A CDD, he said, “is actually, believe it or not, a governmental entity. They have elections.” It enforces policies for district-owned areas, including easements. An association might not object to a fence on a drainage easement, Ellis said, but that does not mean the CDD has no objection.

The CDD declined an interview but gave Tampa Bay 28 a written statement. It describes itself as a special-purpose unit of local government responsible for the stormwater system, including the ponds. Its recorded plats, the statement says, establish the easements and “expressly prohibit permanent improvements within the easement areas, including fences.” The district says HOA approval “does not authorize an encroachment” and that an association cannot waive easement rights. It also says owners are responsible for checking where easements lie before they build, and that a survey Burns-Sierra provided includes a surveyor’s note identifying the fence’s encroachment.

Florida law gives such districts their footing. Chapter 190 of the Florida Statutes, in section 190.003, defines a community development district as “a local unit of special-purpose government,” and the same section defines the water management and control facilities it may run to include lakes, canals, ditches and related easements. Under section 190.011, a district may hold and use public easements and platted reservations for authorized purposes. That section does not mention fines or a specific process for enforcing rules against fences.

On accountability, section 190.006 sets a five-member board that moves from landowner voting to votes by the district’s registered residents over time. Ellis said timing can matter legally, including whether a fence was “open and notorious” and whether the district knew of it, and he noted that a CDD may assert its rights only when it needs to.

Why the District Is Acting Now, and What Remains Open

The trigger, according to the CDD’s statement, was its current maintenance vendor finding fences that left one pond without a legally established access route. The district says the previous vendor reached the pond by a route outside any designated easement, which raises liability and safety concerns. The CDD says it is addressing encroachments in its easements community-wide.

The report adds that the CDD hired a new pond maintenance vendor that wants to bring a truck and a boat through the easement. Abreu disputes the need, supplying photos that show a previous contractor reached the pond by boat from another location, not through the easement.

The CDD says it has granted extensions to some homeowners and will not remove fences before those extensions expire. It directs anyone with questions about easements, deadlines or extension requests to contact the district directly. The Tampa Bay 28 report gives no contact details.

The wider lesson for Florida homeowners is the one Ellis offered: check a lot’s recorded plat and survey for easements before building, because an approval from an association covers only the association’s rules. The Florida Legislature publishes the full text of chapter 190, and the standoff with Burns-Sierra, who turned the removal crew away, shows how quickly an approved fence can become a dispute.

Get stories like this by email. Sign up for The Parent Diaries Letter.

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Shixart1985 – CC BY 2.0/Wikimedia Commons