Memorial residents are raising funds for their legal counsel in a lawsuit about the area’s flooding.

The aptly named Residents Against Flooding group, an area non-profit, filed the suit against the city of Houston and its Memorial-area redevelopment zone in late May, hours after a round of devastating rains left the area flooded.

The residents allege the city and TIRZ 17, which is also called the Memorial City Redevelopment Authority, violated constitutional laws by failing to develop retention basins to collect floodwaters in heavy rain events, such as 2016’s Tax Day and Memorial Day Floods.

Attorneys for the TIRZ declined to comment.

The lawsuit claims floodwater is diverted from areas in the development zone to Houston’s Buffalo Bayou. But residents say with Buffalo Bayou at capacity during heavy rains, the floodwaters divert into neighborhoods, causing flooding in homes and streets.

“In some cases, chokepoints or restrictors are used to prevent increased flows into Buffalo Bayou,” the lawsuit states. “If stormwater is increased and reaches these restrictors, the waters can back up and rise within neighborhoods. For example, there are various chokepoints in the vicinity of (Woodland Hollow Creek).”

Residents say the city and the TIRZ have known about the flooding problems for years, starting with a “key” study in 2003 which residents claim outlined the need for detention ponds within the TIRZ to prevent flooding.

Instead, residents claim, the TIRZ created infrastructure projects the redirected water into neighborhoods surrounding the zone. These neighborhoods include areas around Bunker Hill Road and South Gessner Drive.

“These and other infrastructure projects by Defendants have reduced or eliminated ponding of water on the private commercial properties in and near TIRZ 17, and along the roadways that their customers use,” the lawsuit states. “They send water into the residential areas with inadequate stormwater systems. Defendants’ projects caused the efficient conveyance of stormwater out of the TIRZ areas, where it used to pond, and into downstream areas.”

Now, the RAF group is raising funds for its legal counsel in the suit. The group created a GoFundMe page at www.gofundme.com/preventflooding.

Members said, as a result of the lawsuit, they hope to be able to prevent future issues similar to that with TIRZ 17 in the entire city of Houston.

The residents differentiated their federal lawsuit with a similar state lawsuit filed by property owners near White Oak Bayou. The Texas Supreme Court threw out that lawsuit earlier in June.

The RAF is not seeking monetary relief, the lawsuit claims. Among other relief, RAF is hoping a court will order the TIRZ to “expeditiously” construct necessary drainage projects, like those suggested in previous studies.

The TIRZ had not officially filed an answer in federal court as of press time Tuesday, according to court records.