LAKELAND, Fla. (WFLA) — The people who live on Easton Drive have a love-hate relationship with the historic bricks that on their street.

“I do want it to stay, but I do understand that with the flooding and everything, it just lifts it up and causes a lot of chaos,” said Chelsy Springs, who lives in the neighborhood located near Lake Hollingsworth.

In mid-September, bricks were washing out. There was no hurricane. It was just a rainy day.

Jen Lay was trying to hold a party at home.

“It started pouring down rain, and all of a sudden, bricks just start popping up,” she said. “They started coming up all over here so no one could come to the event unless they came all the way around the lake because there was a giant hole right in the middle.”

Lay loves the brick road on Easton Drive.

Six years ago, she and her neighbors signed a petition to remove the asphalt and restore the historic brick.

“It adds charm to the Lake Hollingsworth area and helps property values, and it slows people down, which is the main thing we wanted,” she said.

After seeing what’s happened with the rain, she knows something needs to change.

“Honestly it’s a big expense, I bet, for the city to have to repair it all the time, and so if it was paved again, then we need like 20 speed humps down Easton,” she said.

“We also understand that our priority is safety,” said Jamin Smith, digital content specialist with the city of Lakeland.

Smith said remediation efforts are underway.

“There was recently an area drainage study that was performed by WSP Engineering Firm,” he said.

There is also a design and feasibility study being conducted.

“We’re going to have it repaved as asphalt as a temporary solution and after the study data comes back in we’re going to see if we’re going to be able to safely put those bricks back,” said Smith.

“I want that so badly. If they could figure out a way to get them to stay, that’s what I would prefer,” said Lay.

The exact timeline for the repaving project is unknown as the studies are conducted.

Work will need to be approved in the 2026 fiscal year budget, according to Smith.

Smith said any considerations about traffic speed once the asphalt is laid could be a part of the city’s Vision Zero initiative, which aims to reduce the crashes resulting in death and serious injury in Lakeland to zero by 2040.