A second lawsuit has been filed against Richland School District 1, claiming that clearing trees for the district’s controversial early learning center project has caused flooding damage to nearby homes in Lower Richland.
Richland 1 broke the law by beginning construction and spending public money on an early learning center without the necessary legal authority, according to a state inspector general’s report. Now clear-cut, the partially developed parcel on Caughman Road is diverting “massive” amounts of stormwater into the Creekside neighborhood, the lawsuit said, where Meaghan and Aleni Ilimaleota live.
The couple purchased their home in the neighborhood in 2021.
Meaghan Ilimaleota, an active-duty member of the United States Army stationed at Fort Jackson, S.C., received orders to deploy for a multiyear assignment overseas in April 2025, and her family is relocating with her. They had intended to sell their home.
The lawsuit, filed July 31, alleges that before “repeated” flooding caused by Richland 1, the couple would have been able to recoup their investment — and then some. But since the flooding, which the lawsuit says has “no end in sight,” their property value has been “badly diminished” and their yard, shed and fence have been damaged.
It is an “ongoing hardship” for the family, the lawsuit says, and they are seeking compensation and damages.
Until October 2023, the property behind the Ilimaleotas’ home was covered with…
