GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP — When the Planning Board gave preliminary approval for a 55-and-older community at the existing Blue Heron Pines East Golf Course on June 8, Mayor Tom Bassford informed representatives of Ole Hansen & Sons, who own the course, that issues of poor drainage needed to be addressed.

Meanwhile, the residents of the Blue Heron Pines West Course are wondering when their drainage problems will be addressed.

Many residents of the West Course complain of standing water around their homes and in their yards due to poor drainage systems.

Ron Tutunjian, who lives on August Court at Blue Heron Pines West, said he has a makeshift pond in his backyard that has been around for more than a year. One good rain is all it takes for it to swell, he said.

``They told me that water would permeate into the ground within 48 hours. Then it became 72 hours,`` said Tutunjian, who has seen ducks swimming in his backyard. ``It's been more like 72 weeks.``

``They`` is K. Hovnanian, the developer who built the Blue Heron Pines West Course community earlier in the decade as well as communities in 18 states, including several in New Jersey.

Jin Chung said he has complained repeatedly to K. Hovnanian about the poor drainage near his home on St. Andrews Drive and that the developer has done very little to fix the problem.

``When it rains one-half inch or more, my whole backyard floods,`` said Chung, who moved onto the course in December 2002. ``They kept saying that if all the water drains in 48 hours, you don't have a problem. It's been three years they've been telling me that they'll fix everything.``

Two weeks ago, Chung said K. Hovnanian notified him that he had no drainage issues and that the company was done with his requests. Chung eventually had to install a fencing drain himself and connect the dry well to the street so that the water could drain properly — at a cost of nearly $7,000.

Thomas Moore, who heads the Blue Heron Pines West Homeowners Association and lives on the course, said the developer used improper construction methods on the homes, many of which violate state building codes. According to Moore, the community wasn't built to the original master plan, nor was the plan verified by Galloway Township engineers.

The Township engineers who were in charge during the development of the West Course community were from the previous administration, Bassford said. He added that current engineer Kevin Dixon and his staff are looking at the drainage situation closely, especially with the potential development of a housing community on the East Course awaiting final approval.

``We've learned from the previous mistakes that the other people made,`` Bassford said. ``This won't happen again.``

Chung said that when it rains, water from most of the holes on the actual golf course drains near his home and collects. Although K. Hovnanian installed catch basins near his home, the basins have never stood the test of a heavy rain, which Chung fears can flood his home if the basins were to overflow.

Moore said that K. Hovnanian also spread compact material between homes like his — which he said were built too close together — and that the material prevents water from being absorbed into the ground and creates standing water.

``The only solution is to tear the houses down,`` Moore said.

Doug Fenichel, a spokesman for K. Hovnanian, said the company has been aware of the drainage issues, but tearing down the community is ``not a reasonable solution.``

``The feedback we're getting from those folks (local and state engineers) is that we're doing the right things and that we're making progress,`` Fenichel said. ``We will continue to work with homeowners and the homeowners association to get to a point where people are satisfied with a reasonable solution.``

But the solutions so far have not been enough for residents like Tutunjian and Carl Casper, who said he can feel himself sinking into the ground when he walks around his property. Casper said that K. Hovnanian installed two catch basins in the rear of his property but that the area remains spongy.

Tutunjian said that K. Hovnanian's solutions are ``like putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound.``

Casper went one step further.

``This area shouldn't have been developed,`` Casper said. ``It should have stayed a vacant lot.``