Chances are the drained pond was a temporary storm water retention pond that the developer installed during the construction of the neighborhood. In any case, I'm sure the pond was drained for good reason. As former builder I can assure that builders don't do expensive things like draining a pond for no reason (read: without being forced to). So I agree with Mike, give the builder a call to find out the reason they drained it, but I wouldn't expect to be able to restore the pond in a protected area without jumping through a lot of environmental hoops. I hope this helps.

I would think it would be easier to contact the builder and ask him why he drained the pond? He may have all the answers that you need. He may have set it up to fill back up, they may have told him to drain it because of healt reasons. Go to the source, make your life easy

Call the city conservation people or the local "eco friendly group" office. They'll make it difficult for the builder...

If you are located in an HOA or Planned Unit Development, chances are that dry pond may have a specific reason for being. It may need to stay dry - for runoff. Patti is correct about the planning dept - but sometimes that opens up a can of worms. Try to see what was in the original plan and your HOA docs.
If it is more of a small pond, it may not even be on the plan.
I have seen it take three or four years to push pond changes through county or local authorities.

You might try contacting your local planning and zoning department:

http://www.hollyspringsnc.us/dept/planning/index.htm

Or the Wake County Planning Department: http://www.wakegov.com/planning/default.htm

They have a database with all the ordinances, including those created regarding tree protection.

Good luck.