BATON ROUGE - With heavy rain comes flooding concerns, especially along Burbank Drive in Baton Rouge, where new developments are popping up in an area prone to flooding.

Three different housing developments are proposed near Burbank Drive near Hunter's Trace subdivision, the Four Seasons apartment complex, and two single-family residential subdivisions, Autumn Gardens and Eliza Gardens.

Some neighbors, like Brian Wood, are concerned about what this could mean for the drainage and flooding in the area.

"These things get built without a whole lot of public input, you know, they get built by developers, and that's fine, I'm all for that, but let's make sure we're not putting other communities at risk to create to create a new community," Wood said.

Wood says his apartment flooded back in 2016, leaving him out of his home for four months. Most recently, during last weekend's rain event, he says water was blocking the entrance of his complex.

"Standing water on this entire street, it was halfway up my tires," Wood said.

The East Baton Rouge Planning Commission recommended the Four Seasons apartment complex for zoning approval in November of 2022, and the Eliza Garden concept plan was approved by the Metro Council in March of 2021.

According to the staff findings, the concept plan meets the minimum criteria of the planned unit development and is compatible with surrounding uses.

"When you look at the community around Burbank and around Bluebonnet, a bunch of that area when I moved here in 2009 had trees on it, and it was legitimate green space, wetlands, much of that has been developed, even along Bayou Fountain," Retired Army Lieutenant General Russel Honore said.

Lt. Gen. Honore says continued development along Burbank Drive could make residents more and more vulnerable, unless it's mitigated with pumps to take water out during heavy rain events.

"Tearing down swamps or woodlands to put a subdivision that is in a low-lying area that's lower than the state highway in front of it is a future flood," Lt. Gen. Honore said.

We spoke with the company overseeing the projects, Quality Engineering and Surveying LLC, who says around 35 percent of the development will be detention ponds and flood mitigation.